“What’s the best way to reach you?” clients used to ask.  “Hit me on the hip, 24/7!”  I would proudly reply in my best attempt to sound comfortable using my limited street lingo.  And when my pager went off, I would make a mad dash for the nearest pay phone.  Of course, as a corporate trainer there were seldom emergencies that required my immediate attention.  (We need more donuts in Training Room A!)  But a pager on the hip stirred in all of us the willingness to heroically spring into action at the sound of the beep.  It felt good to be needed -- urgently needed.

Fast forward to the present day and there is no denying that the 24/7 lifestyle is here to stay.  We are instantly and continually connected via land lines, cables, broadbands, and cell towers.  We have text messaging, instant messaging, email, voicemail, discussion boards, pod-casts, vod-casts (and yes, blogs), and we own a variety of devices to access them all.  We are connected to more people and more information in more ways than ever before.

So why then is it that the more connected we are, the more disconnected we feel?

Linda Stone has coined the term “Continuous Partial Attention” and looks at the impact of 24/7 technology on our productivity and interactions:

“…we want to connect and be connected. We want to effectively scan for opportunity and optimize for the best opportunities, activities, and contacts, in any given moment. To be busy, to be connected, is to be alive, to be recognized, and to matter.” 

But, as Linda points out, the price of always being connected is that we end up feeling overwhelmed, over-stimulated, and unfulfilled.  She recommends finding the “OFF” buttons on our devices and re-discovering ways to give our full attention to a person or project.   Personally, I recommend e-mailing a link to Linda’s research to the next person who, without any warning, answers their Bluetooth headset in the midst of your face-to-face conversation.  (Seriously:  Am I the only one that still gets confused when that happens?)

Being connected can also be about knowing the right people in the right places.  Growing up in the South, the mantra was "It's not what you know, but who you know."  Go to the right school, join the right club...  It mattered.  Statistics show that over 60% of jobs are still obtained through old-fashioned networking.

Now social networking sites such as My Space and Facebook leverage technology to provide us a place to stay connected with our old friends, and make new friends.  In theory, it’s a nice idea.  I like being able to click on a link any time of day and see what my college-aged niece has been up to.  And staying up with her day-to-day happenings helps shrink the gap that the physical distance between us creates.  But I have to wonder:  Does Dane Cook or any of his 2,094,779 inner-circle of My Space friends really find improved sense of self-worth, quality-of-life, and added-value in spending time on that connection?   

LinkedIn has created a professional networking site that can help you tap into and leverage your professional network.  Based on the six degrees of separation concept,  you can identify connections and access contacts in your network and an expanded network that includes your contacts' contacts.  They are projecting to have 18 million registered users by this year end.  (Read article in USA Today)

LinkedIn has been beneficial for me so far, but I have had to vigilantly manage my contacts so that they retain meaning.  I have some contacts that boast nearly 200 other contacts.   While I greatly appreciate their working so hard to broaden my 2nd and 3rd degree networks to an excess of 132,000 people, it does make me feel a little less special.  But then again, I’m not the type that invited 200 or so friends and family to my wedding either, so there you have it.  We all have different thresholds of quality. 

In Daniel Pink's must-read book "A Whole New Mind"  he suggests that in this age of abundance, the search for meaning is the next logical step.  Our multitude of choices and material possessions combined with the daily reminders of life's fleeting nature have left us reevaluating our priorities.   

So why is it that the more we are connected, the more disconnected we feel?

From what I have seen so far, we won’t find the answer on our devices – even those as cool as the I-Phone.  I think the answer is found in the delicate balance between the throwing down our yoga mats and joining a monastary, and continuing to respond to every beep (or personalized ring tone) with the same sense of heroic urgency. 

To find your true connections, start truly connecting to things that matter to you.