How does social media and technology effect our connections?

Social Media, Text Messaging, the Web, and Television have brought to us many advances in technology and communication. Some would even argue that it has brought us set backs. From MJ's funeral media caos on television to the Tour De France 2009 Standings on blogs.

How has social media helped you connect? You can stay in touch with long time friends, who you wouldn't normally stay in close contact with. You can live vicariously through flickr or twitter feeds. You can even track the news of celebrities like Nicole Bobek (the former skating champ who recently received fraud charges), find more information about potential employees, or watch live feeds of events on hulu (like the Michael Jackson funeral).

Does social media effect our connections with other people though? What about technologies effect on actually living life? What if we are texting instead of enjoying a date or are checking facebook instead of going out to live life with real people? How many people do you know that check their friend's facebook statuses every 5 minutes instead of going out and doing something with said friends? I know I've been that person from time to time. I've also know plenty of friends or dates who would rather talk on their phone then listen to the person sitting in front of them. In fact I have a friend, Mike Kraabel, who made a video for the 48 film festival on just this topic. Watch it here: http://vimeo.com/5159978