Connectividad

As I woke this morning, I reached for my laptop a mere arms length away on my coffee table. I looked to see that I was logged in from the night before, so my applications popped up seamlessly in sync with where I had left off 7 hours prior.

A decade ago, this wouldn’t have happened. I would’ve had to get up, log in to my home computer, and wait while dial up detected a signal, all the while hoping no one was on the land line blocking my connectivity. A decade ago, we were all in a different place with getting online and making it a part of our daily lives.

The idea that connectivity  has come to a ridiculous place has certainly caught on in most everyone’s conceptualization of our global consciousness. It wasn’t long before I remember hearing a boss of mine ask my team, “Didn’t you guys get my memo?” and “I’m sure you all read that in my email.” So, what about the people who never fed into this conceptualization. This is where there’s a disconnect.

People don’t really write letters anymore. For those who do, good for you. It’s a real and tangible communication. Even me, being part of the generation that has known connectivity since the early 80s to change the paradigm of communication forever, I’ve seen the difficulties and resistance to change.

The interesting part is that it is no longer acceptable to be “disconnected”. Workplaces and familial communication center around emails and high connectivity through inter-office memos. So, no longer can you ignore your bosses messages sent via her blackberry over her morning meetings. You are to attend to these as though they were confidential directives from the top. So, don’t play dumb and say you didn’t get the memo. Along with connectivity comes a sense of digital responsibility to remain in tune and remain connected.