Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook and the host of real-time-web feed services … are quintessentially distraction-based media; shallow on context and truncated into staccato bursts of conversation. These media play off of a very real psychological factor known as operant conditioning, the addictive need to return over and over in hopes of a reward… The dominant revenue model of the web today - the ad that urges a click - embeds distraction into interface design. The more clicks you take – the more Google makes in ad revenue (distraction pays).

- Joshua-Michéle: The Real Time Web is a Beautiful Distraction