“Time goes by so fast,” remarked a friend of mine wistfully on the eve of turning forty-one.

In decades past, people yearned for the good old days, fondly recalling a slower-paced life of horseless carriages. As time went on, the good old days came to be represented by front porch conversations, hand-written thank-you notes and the ubiquitous tuna-noodle casseroles.

Today, as time and technology not only rev up at warp speed but threaten to engulf us in a tsunami of information overload, people south of fifty recall with affection the good old days when easy-to-use telephones had only one purpose (imagine that!): to make phone calls. But even younger people often admit to feeling swept up and unable to keep up.

Everything’s changing so fast that we hardly have time for nostalgia. Instead, we drift into what I call newstalgia: a yearning not for the distant past, but for last year or maybe last month, when things seemed far less complex and we could get a handle on our lives.

To combat stressful overload, some techies recommend MORE technology. Recently, I heard one expert crowing about all the hot devices he employed to track and sync his multiple email accounts, tweets, Facebook postings, blogs, electronic calendars, desktop and laptop files, iPad and I can’t recall what else – perhaps he has a tape recorder in his shoes so he won’t miss a beat while he’s on the run.

His recitation struck me as so ironically funny, I actually removed the Bluetooth from my ear.

Maybe instead of using technology to organize our technologies, we need to take a few minutes each day to unplug.

I’ll try it and let you know if it’s a good antidote for newstalgia.

Watch for my tweet!