The art of managing connections

Managing connections is no longer what it used to be. 

When I was growing up in Eastern India, my mother used to keep in touch with her parents by writing letters on yellow postcards and blue inland letters, even tough they lived just a few miles away. Phone calls were rare, and Telex was for emergencies. When my father went out of town on day trips, we did not expect to hear from him throughout the day. If he did not arrive at a certain time, we just assumed that the train was late, or something else must have held him back, and there was always the unwavering faith that everything was all right. Back then, we did not feel the need to stay connected all the time...

The scenario has changed rapidly in the past three decades, especially in the last one. 10 years back I was happy with the ability to connect via email, then became enamored with Instant Messaging, and exhilarated to discover the ability of Video chatting. Gradually, but surely, phone calls became really affordable, usage of mobile phones exponentially increased, and we became addicted to staying more and more connected. I now feel comfortable with the assurance that from thousands on miles away, I am able to access my parents almost at any time, and anywhere. My Blackberry is like an essential and inseparable part of me- the texting, calling, emailing have all become second habit. Additionally, now I am on Googlegroups , Linked, Orkut, Twitter, Plaxo, Ning(several different networks on Ning) and Facebook, Hi5 and Naymz. 

It is mind-boggling, what we human beings allow ourselves to get used to.

All these connections mean that now I have to remember to do so much more- to post my reading updates on LinkedIn, to mention the Mamma Mia musical that we went to on last Saturday on Twitter, to  reply to the Orkut scrap that my girlfriend from California sent, and to write on the Facebook Wall of my long-lost recently-found friend from college, to follow-up on the Plaxo birthday notification on my co-worker...the list goes on...If I add new pictures on Orkut, I must remember to update it on Facebook too...

Increasingly it looks like I need a central portal to manage all these connections, or I am at a serious risk of sleep deprivation! I have a strong feeling that such a service is on its way!