For the first time in years, I went an entire vacation without once checking in with my work e-mail account. I can’t claim this was entirely an act of discipline, though I certainly hyped it as such to my wife.

One significant factor in this e-mail abstinence was my lack of access to a high-speed Internet connection. My only portal to the land of instant searches and surfing was a dial-up connection. I was reminded of what it’s like to drink a very thick milkshake through a very thin straw. And it effectively kept my Internet time to a minimum.

Returning to work today, I was greeted by an inbox full of several hundred unread e-mails and this story about Japanese lawmakers looking at kids and cell phone addiction.

Seems that government officials are growing increasingly concerned about the amount of time Japanese kids are spending with their Internet-linked cell phones.

Some youngsters are spending hours at night on e-mail with their friends. One fad is “the 30 minute rule,” in which a child who doesn’t respond to e-mail within half an hour gets targeted and picked on by other schoolmates.

I wonder how much of an issue this is in our country.