The two pilots who overshot Minneapolis by 150 miles, remaining out of communication with air traffic controllers for over an hour, have blamed their silent detour on being distracted by their laptops. Captain Timothy Cheney and First Officer Richard Cole have denied falling asleep, instead explaining that they were reviewing their schedules on their computers.

Whether or not Cheney and Cole were sleepy, this “lost in cyberspace” story is a wake-up call for all of us. The amazing undertow of new technology is indeed powerful enough not only to distract many of us, but to pull us completely off-course in our lives.

The same moving cursor, clicking keys and bright light emanating from Cheney and Cole’s laptops can be hypnotic to millions of Americans, who are disoriented by the lure of their computers and the false comfort of navigation systems. How many traffic accidents on roads, after all, are being caused by people texting while following the voice prompts and LED arrows of their navigation systems.

Not only are we at risk to forget where we are going on the road or in the sky, but we can lose sight of who we are, what our real goals are and what our real emotions are. As Marshall McLuhan said, “The medium is the message.” The technologies we are deploying in a wholesale way across the nation and across the globe will have dramatic psychological effects we can’t predict.

We’re already seeing people who I believe are more violent online than they would be if they weren’t “projecting” themselves into cyberspace. Cyberbullies gang up mercilessly on school kids they haven’t even met. Young women on YouTube broadcast themselves beating other young women.

I have evaluated more than one client in my own practice who was charged with possession of child pornography who I doubt would ever have accessed inappropriate images were he not removed from his sense of self and his core identity by the infinitely depersonalizing distance of a computer keyboard and computer screen. Think about it: If two highly trained pilots can veer 150 miles off course because their laptops suck them into a black hole of inattentiveness, isn’t it possible that computers can lure otherwise good and decent people to very indecent acts?

I believe they can.

I have also counseled couples in which either the wife or the husband engaged in racy, inappropriate behavior online (including e-mails) that I doubt would have ever occurred without the seductive draw of being relatively anonymous, nearly disembodied and technologically “over-powered” by the use of computers and the Internet.

When we consider that much of the world’s military planning and actual weaponry involves the use of depersonalizing technology and computer simulations, we should begin to wonder whether unthinkable acts could be possible (especially by rogue regimes) as people drift off course in more than one way.

Dr. Keith Ablow is a psychiatry correspondent for FOX News Channel and a New York Times bestselling author. His book, “Living the Truth: Transform Your Life through the Power of Insight and Honesty” has launched a new self-help movement including www.livingthetruth.com. Dr. Ablow can be emailed at info@keithablow.com.

Dawn Drexel, the mother of missing teen Brittanee Drexel, told WHEC News 10 in Rochester, N.Y. that she believes her daughter may have been kidnapped or may not be alive.

Brittanee, 17, has been missing since April 25 when she went to Myrtle Beach, S.C., for spring break.

Brittanee’s mother is no longer a stranger to the darkest possible chapter in a parent’s life story: the feared or actual loss of a child.

I have worked with several parents who have survived their own children. I have struggled with them against tides of grief that seem never to recede, but simply to become more expected, so they lose the power to sweep these bereaved mothers and fathers off their feet.

Losing a child lays bare the miraculous connections that can hold families together through thick and thin. No matter how contentious the relationships mothers and fathers may have with their children, the bond between them can’t be reproduced or entirely obliterated. At the ages of 50 and 60 (and older), my patients still want to make sense of the way they related to their parents in childhood, young adulthood and beyond. They are still sons and daughters, even if they have lost their parents.

So Dawn Drexel, brave enough to speak to the media at an unspeakable moment, may wander tonight into Brittanee’s room. Maybe she’ll lie down on her daughter’s bed, maybe she’ll let herself smell her daughter’s pillow. She may think she hears Brittanee’s footsteps or voice or her car pulling into the driveway. That’s no surprise when we consider the sounds of togetherness that come to play like music in the backgrounds of our daily lives, sounds that we stop hearing after a while, maybe because we take them for granted, maybe because no parent’s heart could maintain its rhythm while bearing full witness to the unspeakable, unfathomable beauty of one’s own child. We don’t hear a tenth of what we could, if we thought the music might end.

For those of you reading these words  — the lucky parents out there with children still close enough to hug, I hope you’ll give it a try tonight. Sit for a few minutes and listen to the sounds of your children in the house: their footsteps, their fingers clicking keys on a computer, the opening and closing of their closet doors, their voices on the phone and their breathing as they sleep. Let yourself marvel at the fact that your life has spawned another life and that you have the continuing, rare and wonderful opportunity to shape not only your existence, but that of another human being. Let yourself smile at the thought of their favorite toys (if they’re still young enough), their favorite clothes, the posters on their walls, their best friends, the sports they’ve come to enjoy, the hopes and dreams they’ve embraced.

Stay silent a minute longer. Then close your eyes, think about Dawn Drexel and her missing daughter Brittanee and pray for them both.

I’m going to do that right now. My children are asleep, a few dozen feet away from me. I am a lucky man and I know it.

Dr. Keith Ablow is a psychiatry correspondent for FOX News Channel and a New York Times bestselling author. His newest book, “Living the Truth: Transform Your Life through the Power of Insight and Honesty” has launched a new self-help movement. Check out Dr. Ablow’s website at livingthetruth.com.