Today I had a very thought provoking Twitter exchange.  It started when I read the article, “GE just invented the first ‘internet of things’ device you’ll actually want to own.” Rather than tweeting the title of that article, I chose to quote a phrase deep in the article:

“pretty soon just about everything we own will have some degree of self-awareness” http://t.co/ZtySg70wMf #IoT

Quite quickly, I received two responses, which were really from the same person. Paul Roberts, tweeting both from his personal account @paulfroberts and his professional account @securityledger, responded: 

@mgd “everything we own” but nobody we know, unfortunately! 😉

Could it be that as we instrument our lives more completely in order to connect more efficiently with THINGS, we lose touch with PEOPLE we know?

It is ironic that rather than having this discussion face to face with anyone I know, I am sequestered in my home office communicating virtually with folks in cyberspace.  Am I really IN TOUCH more, or progressively OUT OF TOUCH?

Somehow, I believe we can achieve balance in all of this – seeking to capture the good in IoT and virtual connections while not abandoning the real-world relationships we hold dear.