Technology trend forecaster Aul Saffo was quoted in a recent New York Times article claiming that text messaging actually makes people dumber. Really?

"The act of texting automatically removes 10 I.Q. points. The truth of the matter is there are hobbies that are incompatible. You don't want to do mushroom-hunting and bird-watching at the same time, and it is the same with texting and other activities. We have all seen people walk into parking meters or walk into traffic and seem startled by oncoming cars."

I'd be curious to know how exactly Saffo arrived at the number 10, but I'd be lying if I said the statement was entirely false. I can't count the number of times that I have nearly run straight into someone - or started heading off in the wrong direction - simply because my head was buried in my Blackberry or iPhone (lets just be thankful California now requires hands-free devices while driving!) So if we are so completely absorbed with what is going on in our handheld devices, can we really be aware of what is going on around us? And are we dumber because of it?

Perhaps not, and we are just excellent multi-taskers.

I'm not so sure we are, and the recent train collision in Los Angeles helps prove it. With the overwhelming surge of mediums by which we can connect with our peers on - are we spending just as much time maintaining these networks as we do actually connecting with one another and discussing what we came to talk about in the first place?

I successfully spent two full days in Las Vegas without really seeing much of it at all. You might be wondering how that is even possible, considering the amount of time spent going back and forth from Convention Center, to casinos, to clubs, to the airport with all the BlogWorld Expo attendees. Plenty of time to take in the sights, right? Wrong. Once again - my face was buried in my iPhone, reading tweets, checking e-mail, responding to text messages, finding out where everyone was. And I know I wasn't the only one. There was so much #bwe08 traffic on Twitter, even those that were unable to make it to conference could still participate in the action.

So yes, it's blatantly obvious that we have developed an addiction to mobile computing. With the wide variety of choices available to us - from smartphones to PDAs to teeny tiny laptops - in addition to the never ending flood of slick new applications and programs, it's virtually impossible to avoid giving into the trend. And considering the impact services like Twitter are having on business development, it could be a mistake not to get involved!

So where do we draw the line? How much networking is too much? And is it really making us dumber?