Sing along with me...
I used to write articles and hand them to an art director. Now I blast them out in an e-newsletter, post them to multiple Web sites, record them on a podcast, discuss them during a webinar, link you to them on Facebook and LinkedIn. And still, they want me to tweet.
I sit at meetings and scan the room. Everyone has an iPad/laptop and at least one phone (though two is becoming the norm). They’re not checking one e-mail account, they're checking two (though three is not uncommon). Is anyone listening to that person up front any more?
No, now it’s all about hot spots, which sometimes aren’t even that hot.
The train is wireless, now the plane is wireless, the cruise ship, the hotel too. I arrive at the convention only to witness dozens of my fellow attendees’ backs as they sit at the wireless café or scoot outside because they only get one bar inside.
Bars, it’s all about bars, which used to mean candy, or gold, or a fun night out. Now the word has only one meaning: AT&T vs. Verizon.
I put a New Age tone on my cell phone to keep my blood pressure from spiking every time it rings. It reminds me of a wind chime; when I hear it, I feel like I’m outside a temple somewhere far away (Thailand, maybe). So calming. Until the 100th ring.
I watch my daughter on Facebook, happily communicating with her 875-or-so friends. Never one at a time, because while she’s typing to one on the laptop, another pops up (with that bubble sound) to chat, and her cell phone, always dutifully resting right next to her on the sofa, vibrates nonstop with new texts. One of the dorm parents at her boarding school told me he makes all the kids put their bags into a bin at curfew time—and watches it move across the floor from all the vibrating phones.
Doesn’t the word crackberry sound so, well, dated?
Does your heart do a little dance each time you hear that brrring signaling a new e-mail? Do you just want to scream when you ask your teenager a question, only to have him or her stare blankly back at you, texting away?
Let’s start a LinkedIn group to help each other cope. Or maybe we should tweet about it. Or make a Facebook fan page (I bet we would break the fan record)… or…