Digital Overdose: Too much of a good thing?

The apparent need for an individual’s personal connectivity and contact with others is moving at Mach 2 speed and continues to set a blistering pace.

Today’s plethora of products designed to “keep you in touch with the world” has exploded and digital device makers are throwing a battery of new toys at us this holiday season.

I’ve decided to invent a new term for those requiring immediate and continual digital dialogue in all situations, time zones and fashions: dosers. A doser is a person who must get their daily, hourly or minute-by-minute fix of digital communication or he or she will blow a circuit board.

Ho, Ho, Ho. Off to the electronics superstore we go.

Apple iPhones and literally hundreds of other communication tools are enticing consumers to go from 3G to 4, 5, or mega-G. These endless and enticing offerings are more regular than an Ex-Lax user.

What is the impact of this endless connectivity to friends, family and fun? I can suggest a few things and in the spirit of predicting new trends in the coming year, here’s a list of possible results:

1. Super saturation will cause the diminution of the quality of the communication.
Sample Text:
Texter One (T1): “Hey.”
Texter Two (T2): “Yea?”
T1: “What’s hap-nin?”
T2: “L. Not Much.”
T1: “OK.”
T2: “U?”
T1: “Nuthin.”

2. Overload and Overdose will lead to a retreat for some back to basic communication tools:
“You didn’t respond to my e-mail?”
“Well, I turned off the ‘system’ at 1 a.m., got some sleep and didn’t look at my e-mail until Monday morning.”

3. Increasingly, law enforcement agencies will begin to enforce new laws aimed at distracted drivers. We’ll begin to see more drivers doing “pull-offs” to highway safety lanes and shoulders to avoid getting a ticket, thereby allowing them to communicate comfortably.

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