Always Connected

Created by: Online Schools
Resource Review of Always Connected Infographic by Karen D

This infographic, created by Online Schools, is a comic look at how connected people are from the time they wake up to the time until they go to bed. While it is a fun look at the connected life that many people in society lead it also delivers several serious messages, and can be a discussion starter for talking about issues related to mobile technologies.

The first message is that people today spend a great deal of their life connected to the World Wide Web, to social networks and to each other. Mobile devices enable this anywhere, anytime connectivity and are used for a variety of purposes: research, apps, communication, news, entertainment, note taking and connection to others. The Australian Communication and Media Authority (ACMA) reported that in 2008 for the first time ever the number of mobile phone exceeded the population, or in other words, there is more than one mobile phone for every person in Australia. It is quite staggering to think of the popularity of mobile devices and to also realise the impact that that has had on the way we live, communicate and deal with information. However, while there are positive features about this connectivity there are also negatives highlighted in the infographic.

The first negative concerns distraction. The infographic highlights incidences of distraction while driving, at work and while studying. Multitasking is a common trait of using mobile devices with users flipping between internet sites, emails and texting. This issue was highlighted in the PBS production Digital Nation (2010). Studies were conducted on how effective people actually were at multitasking and the results were that they were much more ineffective and distracted than they realised and also more ineffective than when concentrating on one task. This result indicates a need for striking a balance between the multitasking, high paced world that many students are participating in and the need for focus and concentration at times.

Another issue highlighted by the infographic are the social consequences of constant connectivity with 50% of Americans preferring to communicate digitally rather than face to face. Most viewers would voice concern at this however recent studies by Valkenburg and Peter(2009) have put forward a hypothesis that as long as users are using the internet to maintain existing friendships rather than communicating with strangers, then this use actually increases social connectedness and wellbeing.

This infographic was an excellent resource in encouraging discussion and thought about our obsession with connectivity and the impacts that this has.



References

Digital nation [Television series episode]. (2010). In Frontline. USA: PBS. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/view/



Valkenberg, P., & Peter, J. (2009). Social consequences of the internet for adolescents. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 18(1), 1 - 5. Retrieved October 20, 2011 from http://cdp.sagepub.com/content/18/1/1.full.pdf html