According to a new report prepared by a professor at Ball State University, "the average American spends a staggering nine hours a day tuned in, plugged in, online, on the phone, scanning a newspaper or using some other form of media — more time than he or she spends sleeping," And three of those hours are spent multi-tasking - surfing the Web while watching TV or talking on the phone while watching TV. At times, the report manages to sound like a Kinsey study: "Men seek media contact of "short duration and instant gratification" while women are interested in "longer, more thoughtful" interaction."

The "nine hours" cited in the report is an attention-grabber -- but consider the following scenario... You wake up, check e-mail and news in the morning on the PC (1 hour), head to work where you read the newspaper on the subway (30 minutes). Then, you work at your computer or make phone calls to clients all day (4 hours). Afterwards, you head home and read a magazine on the commute home (30 minutes). After a nice takeout dinner from Zabar's, you turn on the TV and watch the Yanks beat the Angels (3 hours). That's 9 hours, real easy.