Are You "Hyperconnected"?

There's a fascinating nugget buried in a new study of workers around the world, as reported in Bulldog Reporter's Daily Dog today. The study itself, sponsored by Nortel and carried out by research company IDC, has some interesting findings about what one thing people would take with them if they had to leave everything else home - 30% say their mobile phone. But here's the nugget: the study found about 16% of the workers are what they called "hyperconnected."

It's the definition of hyperconnected that brought me up short: it means, according to the study, a person who uses a MINIMUM of seven devices for work and/or personal access, and a MINIMUM of nine applications such as IMs, texting or web conferencing.

Those are MINUMUMS.

Let's see. I use three computers - a desktop Dell, a desktop Mac and a laptop Dell (my wife uses a Mac iBook too, but I don't really use it, so I can't count that one). I have a cell phone. That's five. I don't know if they count iPods and such, or the land line phone, but I suspect I may not make the hyperconnected category.

And do I really use nine applications? Do separate social networks count? I use LinkedIn and Facebook and Twitter, but are those all part of one? I don't use IM very much and I mostly receive (rather than send) text messages. Nope, I'm not going to be hyperconnected.

The point is, 16% - ONE IN SIX - workers are already "hyperconnected." And the study predicts that will increase to 40% in five years.

Suddenly, I feel very old indeed...