THE 24-HOUR CONNECTION: This generation’s students wired in around the clock

There is an increasing lack of face-to-face contact between people these days. Even when communication has occurred all day, time can pass without any real physical contact ever having occured.

Instead of picking up a telephone and calling to check on a friend, we log into Facebook or Twitter and check their status updates.

Once upon a time when people wanted to exchange thoughts and ideas, they would write a letter and send it through the mail. A week later, the recipient would read the message and draft a response.

We are now dependent on smartphones, laptops, gaming consoles and social networking sites. A letter has turned into an e-mail, a phone call has become a text message and a road map has evolved into GPS devices. Checking our e-mail has become as routine as brushing our hair.

With the invention of the smartphone it is unnecessary to leave the comfort of our own bed to check our e-mail, MySpace or Facebook. Cell phones make it possible to record, download, broadcast and view a video online minutes after it has been shot.

Just as Beta and VHS tapes were replaced by DVDs, digital video recorders have replaced must-see TV. The briefcase-sized boom boxes once carried upon our sholders have evolved into digital music players such as iPods and Zunes.

Offices are now anywhere we are thanks to wireless technology. Checkbooks have been replaced by online bill pay and debit cards.

With ever-advancing changes in technology, we are more connected to the rest of the world than we have ever been in the past, but it comes at a price.

Face-to-face social intereraction has become an afterthought. We are spending more of our week tweeting and blogging about what we are doing than engaging in those activities.

While people worry about their imaginary Facebook farms they are at risk of having their identity stolen for buying that bag of digital feed. The next purchase on their credit card could very well have you singing the FreeCreditReport.com song.

The notion of copyright has gone out the window, and the idea that “I found it on the Internet, therefore it’s mine” is dominant.

Time will only tell how much our technologially advanced lives will cost. TTYL.