Are we too connected?

Got a business card from someone yesterday and something struck me as odd.  Sure, it had the normal phone number, address, title, logo, and all that.  But it was the first business card I've come across with a Twitter address on it.  Admittedly I don't get a lot of business cards handed to me in my day job.  But he had Twitter URL, a blog URL, email, two phone numbers, and address.  And on the back there were 6 URLs to projects that he was involved in within his company (big, giant company).

Got me thinking.  Sure, it's nice to stay in contact with people that you want to stay in contact with.  But are we too connected?  Right now I'm typing on a web forum, have Canary open to my Twitter feed, Thunderbird open with one of my email addresses, and am IMing with Yahoo.  And just in case, my cell phone is sitting next to my computer on the counter.

And now I'm at a point where I feel disconnected if I'm not around email or IM.  I've got access to email, IM, and Twitter on my iPhone so I can always check and see if there's anything new.  Rarely is there though.  And never something that couldn't wait a couple hours until I got home or to work. 

What do you mean by "too connected"? That implies something negative.
Are you missing out on interacting with your family because of Twitter or chatting online or whatever? Are you being unproductive at work because you are on a forum all day?
Ryan, I am asking these questions hypothetically, not to you per se.
If being "conncected" is straining your life then yes, it's a problem. If not then it's just different ways to interact with clients or friends and family.
My 70 year old mother is on Facebook and it brings her a lot of joy. Now, she gets out and is VERY active with her family and church. She is a "work service missionary" where she does transcribing and archiving stuff for the church museum and she teaches people to quilt, etc etc etc. BUT she loves Facebook for the ability it provides to interact with her sisters in different states and to share pictures of her grandchild with friends from the past. I should note that while she doesn't use Twitter, she has a cell phone, reads blogs, banks online and sends me emails often even though I live 15 minutes away.
I think it's good for her socially. While I don't do the social thing as much, I operate my business online.
So... I guess I am saying if used properly it's amazing and I am so glad I live now. However, I do sometimes waste away my time doing silly online things.

Sorry for the long post

I don't think of it necessarily as a negative.  Although I do think online can become addictive, in which case I suppose the addiction is the problem, not what's addicted to if that makes sense.  It be nice if someone could figure out a good way to keep it all in the same place though.  

And bringing up your mother is a well timed point.  My wife's 80-something year old grandmother Facebook friended me last week.  At first it struck me as odd, mostly because I just couldn't picture her even using a computer.  But it does give her a chance to socialize with others that she wouldn't otherwise get a chance.

The hard part for me is separating social from professional.  It's difficult for me to flip a switch and be in business mode when I'm IMing with a ProofBuddy client and go to social mode when I'm chatting with a friend.