Friday, May 30, 2008

Am I Hyperconnected?

My answer is probably no. I recently saw this posting from the "Church of the Customer Blog asking "Are you hyperconnected?" Here is the criteria:

Are you hyperconnected? The magic number for devices is seven. That's seven devices for work or personal use while using at least nine applications like IM, text messaging, web conferencing and social networks.


The author of the post lists her devices, so let me see if I can do mine as well:


  • The devices:
    • Computer at work. I have mine in the office, plus I use the one at the reference desk.
    • Cell phone. They say to count this. However, I only use my phone for. . .wait for it. . . phone calls. I do not surf the web on it, and if I text message, it's maybe once in a blue moon to the better half. In fact, we use texting so little, we may remove it from our plan on the next cycle. Who knows? I am not one of those over-connected people who need to have everything from the web sent to their cellphone because heaven forbid they miss the latest twit.
    • Computers at home. I have a laptop in my work station, but it does not leave the house (i.e. I am not one of those self-important people who have to carry a laptop everywhere). There is one other computer the family uses. We only use it as needed. I use mine a bit more for blogging.
    • Land line. We barely use that, but giving it up for a cellphone would invite all sorts of annoying calls from marketers, spam, etc. Better to screen the calls at home than get some a**hole on your cellphone. And before you point out to the DO NOT CALL list, trust me. We are registered, and we STILL get the a**holes.
  • Applications (she lists a bunch of stuff like Twitter, which I don't use):
    • Firefox is my browser of choice.
    • Yahoo! messenger, though I do not use it a whole lot to be perfectly honest. Unlike a bunch of 2.0 librarians, instant messaging is just something that has not really caught on for me.
    • Facebook. I have it, but again, another thing that is just there. While I check on it, not something I am terribly active with either.
    • a few other social apps. that, again, I use only occasionally.
In other words, based on that, some people might say I am underconnected. And you know what, that is just fine by me. I know of the applications and tool. I can use them if I need to, but my life sure as hell does not depend on them. When it comes to those hyperconnected people, I agree with Mr. T, "I pity the fools!"

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