How "connected" are you?

[Tiberius Jim]

I realized today that ever since I got my new Blackberry and the unlimited data plan that I got with it, I am never out of some form of contact. If someone needs to talk to me, they can call, they can text, they can send an email, an IM, they can leave a note on Myspace of Facebook...and it will get to me instantly. It goes the other way, too...if I need to look something up or send someone a message or email, I'm always able to do so whether I am at home on my computer or out and about with my phone. Basically, I am always within reach during just about every waking minute.

I actually like this, as I don't find it bothersome to be contacted by people frequently, and its proven to be worth the money to have the ability to look things up online ont he fly.

So, how connected are you? Are you like me and never out of reach or are you completely off the grid? Or anywhere in between?

 

[RoJoHen]

The only time I am out of contact with the world is when I'm sleeping because I put my phone on Silent.

Otherwise, anyone who has any reason to contact me can call or text. If I'm at work, I probably won't be able to respond (I can sneak the occasional text, though), but at least I'll be aware that you tried to get a hold of me.

I can do the whole internet thing with my phone, but I don't feel like paying the extra charges that go along with it.

 

[Hermiod]

Let's see now.

In software terms I have e-mail (personal and work), MS Office Communicator (while at work), Twitter and my blog.

In device terms I have personal mobile phone which has an unlimited data contract and I've set it up with push e-mail, my work mobile phone (which is switched off when I'm not in the office) which receives my work e-mail via push as well. I have my personal e-mail set up on my work laptop.

I'm uncontactable for about 45 minutes a day in total when I'm on the Tube and therefore in a tunnel. Even that's changing, as Transport for London are experimenting with small cellular receivers in Tube stations.

Plus, I suppose, there's Xbox Live and PSN.

 

[Miss Chicken]

If I am at home people can contact me either by my land phone or by email.

I do not have a mobile (cell) phone so if I am out people have to leave a message for me. I rarely remember to check my phone's message bank but I regularly check my email.

Sometimes people ask my son to pass on a message if he answers the phone while I am out. This is unwise of them as he rarely remembers to give me the message.

 

[An Officer]

^ Have you left a notepad and pencil by the phone? That way, he's got no excuse.

I'm about as connected as the OP. I have a Nokia capable of all those lines of communication. I can be contacted by calls, sms, mms, email, or Facebook at all times. Thankfully, no one chooses to contact me at all times! And I don't really check my email or Facebook very often. It's nice to have that option, but I wouldn't feel particularly bad or cut off if I left my phone behind on the weekends, say.

 

[JoeZhang]

I run my own exchange server and my phone is never off, so I'm contactable in that sense - as for nonce book and the rest - the trekbbs is the only time vampire I need and I don't want to be in touch with people I want to school with - I thought they were scum at the time and that's unlikely to change.

 

[Miss Chicken]

^ Have you left a notepad and pencil by the phone? That way, he's got no excuse.

My son has cerebral palsy and as a result has very bad handwriting that I cannot decipher most of the time. He even has trouble reading it at times.

 

[iguana_tonante]

I have my mobile with me virtually at any time, so anybody can call or text me. I don't have interned on it, tho. I only switch it off when I'm sleeping, showering, or doing something I don't want to be disturbed (like working out, or doing other kinds of... exercise). When I'm home or at work I usually have a computer within reach, so the only time when I can't use my email is when I'm around the city.

 

[JonathonWally]

Many many years ago...

It was a dark and stormy night, you could hear the trees screaming through the wind. Friends and I were exploring new place to off-road our trucks and a place to set camp up over the next few days.

That night, around midnight we all heard some strange sounds coming from beyond the woods, what sounded like drunken girls.

I jumped to investigate.

As I wandered around looking for these girls, in my haste I have not noticed that I had left the tree line and was now walking through an open field.

No sooner did I realize how dangerous an open field is in a lightning storm did I look up.

And what I saw, what I saw I will never forget for the rest of my days.

The skies opened up in a circle above me, it was as if time had slowed down, I could watch this bolt of lightning coming straight down at me. Almost biblical in how long it took that lightning to strike me.

Right on my head!
Knocking me down instantly!!

I woke sometime after dawn, the skies had started to move. I climbed to stand, taking note of my scorched clothing and steam rising from my head.

My friend's called my cellphone to see where I was, I reached for it in my pocket and pulled it out only to see it was fried, half burnt up, the other thoroughly soaked.

But yet, I could still hear it ring.

I was blown away, astonished, the phone was as if it were in my head. I answered it. I spoke normally and heard it just like if i was using a cellphone, I glanced down at my destroyed phone and realized my new powers!

I no longer needed a phone, no longer a computer, I could reach out and touch someone!!

With just thoughts.

Was it a form of ESP?

Did the strike of lighting merge myself with my very own cell phone? It was all a wonder.

Was this all a part of "God's" plan for me?

All I really knew at that moment, was that I was beyond the tangible ways of communication.....I had evolved



to be cont.

 

[GodThingFormerly]

EADS bestowed upon me a Nokia N96 smartphone with unlimited global voice and data when I joined the company, but I am obliged to keep it charged, on standby and within reach 24/7/365 in case of an emergency.

TGT

 

[All Seeing Eye]

I realized today that ever since I got my new Blackberry and the unlimited data plan that I got with it, I am never out of some form of contact. If someone needs to talk to me, they can call, they can text, they can send an email, an IM, they can leave a note on Myspace of Facebook...and it will get to me instantly. It goes the other way, too...if I need to look something up or send someone a message or email, I'm always able to do so whether I am at home on my computer or out and about with my phone. Basically, I am always within reach during just about every waking minute.

I actually like this, as I don't find it bothersome to be contacted by people frequently, and its proven to be worth the money to have the ability to look things up online ont he fly.

So, how connected are you? Are you like me and never out of reach or are you completely off the grid? Or anywhere in between?

Well i'd be just as connected if I could actually afford a blackberry and afford to use all the features it has but unfortunately I don't.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I have email, and then I run a few websites, so people know how to reach me through those. I also have a phone with Internet access and SMS. So, I am basically never out of touch. I am not above turning off my phone, though...

 

[JustKate]

I'm often out of touch [cue Maxwell Smart voice]AND loving it![/Max]

I am very reachable during work hours - phone, cellphone, email. (And I have pretty long work hours, by the way.) I'm fairly reachable at home - phone, sporatic email. But once I'm off the clock, unless I have reason to think somebody will be trying to reach me, I turn the dang cellphone off, and I have thus far resisted anybody's attempts to get me a BlackBerry or similar device. I do not want to be that connected.

 

[Deckerd]

I have a mobile phone but it's usually either running out of power or credit. Nobody needs to be contactable 24/7 except perhaps heads of state.

 

[Kestra]

I have a cell that I answer during business hours, and always keep with me otherwise. But I often screen my calls and just don't pick up if it's not for work. I love my family and I love my friends, but sometimes I get sick of being treated like a helpline. I check my e-mail fairly regularly so if there's anything important, they can always send it to me there.

 

[mimic]

People have trouble getting in touch with me when I'm in the shower or in class.

 

[Michael Chris]

I can generally be reached except during class, but my phone doesn't have a data plan.

 

[B.J.]

I seem to remember an episode of a show back in the 80s that dealt with this. It may have been the New Twilight Zone or something similar. The episode revolved around one guy in a society that was constantly connected by way of phone, fax, beeper, and a few other things (but I don't think e-mail was one - this was the 80s!). The guy wanted to get some peace and not be constantly (and I do mean constantly!) within contact. When his family, friends, and coworkers couldn't get in touch with him (he kept destroying all the gadgets), they became concerned, and thought he was crazy for wanting to be alone sometimes. I think he ended up getting committed at the end of the episode.

I've been thinking of this particular episode a lot recently, because it seems that the society that was shown has actually come into being!

 

[Sephiroth]

I have a cell phone, which i really dont have with me all the time, i have an e-mail address, and you can IM me here and on youtube. Thats. It.

 

[Jadzia]

I wouldn't want to be so "connected". Maybe it's just the environment I grew up in, but seeing someone laden with mobile phones and mobile internet and mobile everything else is a real turn off to me.

I prefer technology to be like furniture -- stuff that sits around the edges of a room, that I can polish.