Source: IDC/Nortel White Paper -
The Hyperconnected: Here They Come!

A post by Steve Rubel up on his site Micro Persuasion, points at a gap between the hyperconnected and the rest of the world. The term comes from a recent IDC/Nortel study that surveyed people for the number of communication devices and communication applications. The hyperconnected are those who use online communication services extensively and from a myriad of devices. People who use Twitter from their cell phone, check email on vacation, or have Flickr, Facebook, myspace, LinkedIn, Pownce and gTalk and use them all regularly.

The survey says 16 percent of internet users fall into this category. The hyperconnected have at least 7 gadgets, including computers, mobile phones, gps maps, video game consoles, and PDAs, and use at least 9 applications or services, including things like Firefox, Outlook, RSS readers, Facebook and Twitter.

Rubel writes about the passive online, and how this gap represents a barrier to user-generated media online.

I believe this gap will narrow as more people get comfortable with the technology and with participating online more. Will there always be a sizable group people who decide not to participate, barring any other reason from getting online?

A recent report from the Pew Internet and American Life project reveals that teens are writing more. Through 700 phone surveys and interviews with parents and teens aged 12 to 17, researchers discovered that all teens were writing for school and a vast majority enjoyed writing. Parents agreed that their teenagers were writing more then they did at the same age. Much of their writing occurs through the Internet, on social networking sites, instant message, email, and text messages.

While it’s true that teens are using the written language more, educators and others are worried that the use of the instant methods of communication where brevity is more important than proper use of the language is causing more harm than good.

I think that anything that gets kids to communicate and create is worth it. Teens are taught in school how to write properly and are required to write properly. I think that as long as they are taught the difference between the way they would write to friends and the way they would write to be taken seriously, it’s not a problem.