Real-time Web keeps social networkers connected – USATODAY.com

Are we too connected? Is social networking online changing our behavior? The the worse? USA TODAY believes so….

The changes can be vexing, but there is precedent. The arrival of new and improved media almost always foments behavioral changes. The TV generation ushered in the TV dinner. Radio brought families together in front of a box. The big difference is that the real-time Web is always on, connecting millions of Americans to one another at all hours.

“Three or four years ago, we spoke of the Web as disenfranchising people in front of their computers, alone,” says Trevor Traina, who has co-founded, and sold, two Internet start-ups. “But it has come full circle. Now, the PC can often be a hive of communications. You can’t go to the grocery store now without telling your friends.”

Those born in 1978 through 1997 — the so-called Net Generation— are the largest generation in size (78.5 million people in the U.S.). They were weaned on technology and, based on demographic muscle alone, will dominate the 21st century, says Don Tapscott, author of Grown Up Digital.

For all of the benefits of real-time connectivity, many folks acknowledge a litany of annoyances that come with being connected up to 20 hours a day.

The No. 1 headache is often just signing off.

via Real-time Web keeps social networkers connected – USATODAY.com.

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