How Connected Are We?

     How connected are we? That's an interesting question. Throughout time people have been more or less disconnected from other people. Until the 1830s no one could be contacted unless you went to talk to them yourself or if you wrote them a letter, both of which would take about the same amount of time. The telegraph, starting about the 1830s, allowed messages to be sent over great distances but it still wasn't perfect. The telegram either had to be delivered to the person addressed or they had to go pick it up. In the 1870s Alexander Graham Bell patented the phone (http://inventors.about.com/od/bstartinventors/a/telephone.htm) and then phones were the next best way of communication. Phones brought people a little closer, in that they could call someone anywhere that they had a phone. After it was first introduced, the phone eventually was made smaller and smaller. Eventually, sometime it the 1980s, it became handheld and portable, now known as the cell phone. Although, not long after that, the internet was invented and people use it every day to communicate around the globe.
     With the internet came e-mail, which allowed for almost instant communication through text sent from one email address to another. Instant messaging had already been developed even before the internet. But, after email came social networks. The first being SixDegrees.com, which only lasted a few years and progressing from there. Some early Social networks are LiveJournal and LunarStorm. Starting in 2003 the social networking industry exploded. With websites such as Friendster (2002), LinkdIn, MySpace, Last.FM, and Hi5 popping up, they all continued to bring people from all over the world closer and closer. Today, there are many different social networks online such as Bebo, Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn, MySpace and Google+.
     All of these technologies have brought people closer together. With the internet, not only through social networking sites, people in America can meet people in Europe through online video games, both on the computer or a console. Cell phones have also helped connect people.
     Cell phones have, and continue to get smaller and more powerful. With a cell phone you can make calls to anyone in the world who has a phone (though it may cost you a small fortune to do so) and you can text someone, which is almost the same as instant messaging them. Since Blackberry came out with phones that could e-mail, the things phones could do has increased exponentially. Now, with a smartphone, people can not only call and text, but they can access all of the social networking websites and connect to people all over the world. Connect to people that are on computers and also on their phones as well. They can still e-mail and instant message people through almost any IM service. Some phones have more computing power than the spaceships that landed on the moon.
     As to the question, "How connected are we?" I think, as a population, we are almost completely connected. Although, I don't think there is a definite answer, such as a number, there is only a concept. Internet and cellphone towers aren't everywhere, but they almost are. Being so thoroughly connected, I think at times it can be a good thing but I've noticed that people around me, and me as well, are very dependent on this ability to be constantly connected and it can even be a need.