We hear so much about new technology, feeling pressured that we must embrace and integrate it into our lives; from 'tweeting' to 'liking' to 'texting' and 'checking-in' – our popular culture has been forever altered by.

Connectedness

Often we hear retaliation to our new digitally connected world with comments like;

"I don't want to tweet,"    "what happened to the phone call?,"   "I still like to read the newspaper,"  "technology is killing basic communications skills,"     "these kids can't go anywhere without texting."

These comments do illustrate the reality of our world today, but I am here to say that it is not the technology that is the catalyst , but our ability now with mass 3G and 4G WIFI access to be hyper connected – all of the time.

It is only recently that consumers have been able to "check in" at their local pub, and be greeted with a free appetizer as a thank-you, or tweet about poor customer service on an airline, with an immediate response from an airline representative via Twitter offering a free upgrade.  And yet, still some are hearing the whistle of their computer modems dialling into their online world from a desktop computer. Yes, there are some communities where access to the internet is not as easy as finding your nearest hot spot or pulling out your iPad.

There has never been a time where access to the world wide web, has been so fast, easy and most importantly – Mobile.

Smart-phones were our first taste of extreme mobile access.  We could Google, text, tweet and Facebook [insert shameless "like us on Facebook" link here] message on the go. Then came the tablet, which revolutionized the way we utilize our connectedness. Without easy access to 3G and 4G WIFI (very limited until only 2010), the tablet technology would not have been as revolutionary.  Take the Kindle for example, we love that we can read a book, store our libraries, and save paper – but without connectedness to the rest of the WWW, its just another toy that is fun to have.

Remember when we first had access to the web via our mobile devices? It was euphoric when we could look up a phone number on our blackberry (albeit hard to read at times as mobile browsers did not really work well at first) and dial the local pizza parlor.

Fast forward only a few short years and we are connected to the Internet almost at all times via phones, 3G enabled tablets, laptops etc – all with connectivity available to us almost anywhere from the car, to the airport, and not just limited to the local Starbucks on the corner offering a free hotspot (and making us consume way too many caramel macchiato's).

So there it is folks, the technology has only kept up with our increased access to WIFI, and the Internet world we have grown to rely on. Imagine that now, those using the iPhone 4s are utilizing a voice-enabled smartphone assistant (her name is SIRI) to not only book hair appointments (without even looking at a search engine to find the phone number or require us to type it into our calendar), and then reminding us of where we are supposed to be when late for said appointment. (I hope she doesn't yell).

All of this and more is powered by technology – but enabled by… Connectedness.

In the spirit of connectedness and technology, check out our freshly "hatched" website acoupleofchicks.com - and look!  We even look good on the iPad!

ideahatching.com is a marketing blog from Alicia Whalen, co-founder of A Couple of Chicks Marketing, discussing search, marketing & measurement in the new Internet Marketing environment! Please leave your comments - I'd love to hear from you!

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