Young America, We May Have A Problem...

As most of you know, this afternoon raised much discussion in law school classrooms, dorm rooms, and corporate offices across America!  Why, you ask?  Because for approximately two hours today, Gchat was down!  For many of us,  a large red line appeared above our Inbox alerting us that our contacts had temporarily been "lost."  This was the first sign.  Next, our Gchat was disabled and the horrifying gray dot next to our name sparked controversy all across America!  Somewhat confused, we managed to turn to blackberry chat, Google Talk on blackberry, or some other internet service (I'm not on facebook or twitter so I was really out of the loop today!)!  But, that wasn't enough.  What would we do without Gchat?  Would we have to...do homework? actually work on our jobs?! AGH!!!

To further prove the severity of the situation, cnn.com stepped on the scene to verify that, "Yes Folks, GChat is indeed down!"  (Who knew Gchat/Gmail was that big!!)  Certainly, many of us initially thought, "Maybe it's just my Gchat"  But no, when we checked with our blackberry chat friends or facebook friends, we realized it's ALL OVER!!

This isn't the first time this has happened, but this is the first time that I've seen CNN actually include the madness in it's list of "Hot Topics" articles!  For me, that was a wake up call! Young America, We May Have A Problem!  Why are we so addicted to this screen?!

I didn't think I was that into instant messaging type programs since I'm not a MySpacer (MySpace still exists right?), facebooker or twitterer (I may have made that word up), but when Gchat is down, I pause for a moment to think..."What am I going to do?" LOL!!  This, my friends, is a problem! 

What's the solution? The cure? Who knows--recklessly abandon our daily outlet to our friends both near and far? Nah!! LOL!! Too extreme.  But perhaps more thoughtful reflection on how many ways we have to connect with people and for people to connect with us.  Can you cut down? 

I'm not sure what to do, but I do know that seeing the article on CNN today was enough to make me think...does Gchat having difficulties really deserve to share headline space with "4 police officers shot in New Jersey raid" or "G-20 leaders meet to bolster global economy"? 

What do you think?

Wondering what life would be like without a blackberry, Gchat, or this fun blog,
SG