Facebook raised eyebrows recently by reporting that most of its members are using the service from a mobile device as opposed to a typical computer. If this and other indicators prove accurate, many businesses are in for destruction, opportunity or both.

Fact is that we’re in a full-blown technological transition whose breadth might surprise you. But not Larry Page, the Google chief executive who said in an October 2012 earnings call that “it’s hardly surprising” that mobile search and commerce is growing. Page further noted that while an “abundance” of connectivity “causes disruption, it also creates amazing opportunity.”

Smartphone Owners Are Young And Rich

Part of that opportunity comes from the fact that smartphone users tend to be richer and younger than the general population. According to a 2012 survey by demographics researcher Nielsen, smartphone ownership can be described as a function of age and income. Mobile penetration peaks among 25-to-34 year olds making more than $100,000 a year, and bottoms out with 65+ year olds who make just $15,000 to $35,000.

But that means there’s still a lot of growth to come as smartphone ownership continues to trickle into ubiquity.

Among mobile device buyers in the U.S., two-thirds are choosing smartphones over “feature phones” for their next phone purchase. But so far, among these 233 million mobile users, currently only 36% smartphone owners, according to Nielsen estimates from 2012. For comparison, Nielsen believes there are 192 million PC users and 290 million people who own television sets.

So, how can you convince your bosses and colleagues to take advantage of this historic mobile opportunity? The following data points and examples from leading companies can help.

Remember, the point of these numbers is to motivate, not frighten, so you don’t need to grab them and run screaming into your boss’s office (although this might prove a useful strategy if your business has yet to galvanize around a mobile strategy). It should suffice to pull up this post on your smartphone during your next meeting, and slyly slip an anecdote or two into the conversation.

When all attention turns to you for insight, you can riff on the words of Mark Zuckerberg in the most recent Facebook earnings call: “I think our opportunity on mobile is the most misunderstood aspect of [your company] today. Most people underestimate how fundamentally good the trend towards mobile can be for [your company].”

1. Apple

Apple now sells 1.7 million iPads a week.

2. Bank of America

Bank of America averages 10,000 new mobile subscribers each day, according to chief executive Brian Moynihan. He says growth is strong among his company’s “preferred client area” - this resulting in an uptake in BoA’s brokerage arm Merrill Lynch.

3. Facebook

Some 23% of Facebook’s $1.3 billion in advertising revenue now comes from mobile, up from 14% from last quarter. The number of daily Facebook users on mobile devices now exceed those on the Web. 680 million people are coming back at least once a month, an increase of 57% from the previous year.

4. Google

As of Q3 2012, Google had an $8 billion mobile revenue run rate.

5. LinkedIn

Last year, mobile was the fastest growing service inside of professional social networking company LinkedIn.

In 2011, 15% of total unique visits came from mobile devices according to chief executive Jeff Weiner. But according to a more recent earnings call, an average of 25% of Linkedin’s unique users came through mobile apps, up 13% from the previous year.

6. Netflix

Netflix claims to have 33 million "streaming members." Most of them are not using PCs to access its service, according to Internet researcher The Sandvine Group. The company found that non-traditional device users consumed more; for example, a Netflix customer using an Xbox 360 consumed twice as much content as the average subscriber.

7. Pinterest

According to Nielsen’s annual social media report, 39% of all social networking time is spent on mobile apps and the Web. Among social media sites, newcomer Pinterest led in mobile growth with 1,047% year-over-year growth.

8. Plenty Of Fish

Online dating site Plenty Of Fish saw the mobile movement as early as February 2012, when 40% of the site’s U.S. signups came via mobile devices. In a post published then, the company estimated that the site would be 60% to 70% mobile by the end of 2012 and summarized a sense of bittersweetness in the company's casual tone:

Now, it's great to have all this traffic, the only problem is now one has figured out how to make similar levels of money on mobile as the web, unless you do some real scammy stuff. So ya its great to have more traffic on mobile than every other dating app combined in english speaking countries but it doesn’t matter much if you can’t really monetize it at high levels and it starts to canabilize your web traffic. [sic]

9. Yahoo

According to Yahoo chief executive Marissa Mayer, Yahoo saw 200 million monthly unique mobile users in 2012. “From a monetization perspective, this is still a very nascent source of revenue for us,” she said in a recent earnings call. “With any platform shift, revenue always follows users, and Mobile will be no different. Smart monetization of this usage is inevitable.” There are 234 million Americans age 13 and older using mobile devices according to comScore.

10. Zynga

There are 22 million Zynga mobile daily active users, according to a recent earnings call for the social gaming company. Revenue brought in by mobile customers represents 20% of all virtual goods sold by the company.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock.

Since the invention of the laptop, employees have been trying to bring their personal devices to work. And ever since that first employee-owned laptop crossed the corporate threshold, the IT department has almost always said "No way you're bringing that un-supported, un-secure, un-productive consumer machine into my nice clean business network."

Until recently, the idea that you might Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) to work has filled IT folks with fears of:   

• Rootkits and other malware
• New operating systems to support
• Proprietary, insecure applications
• No remote management
• Incompatibility with enterprise security and encryption

For the vast majority of businesses, securing, managing, and supporting user-sourced devices just wasn't worth the potential upside. In some heavily regulated environments, it wasn't even a possibility.

BYOD Grows Up

But times have changed. As shifting cultural norms and new devices have increased employee pressure for BYOD, the industry has finally responded with the tools IT needs to safely open its doors to personal devices.

Let's not kid ourselves. BYOD is still a major undertaking. But over the past few years, companies like Intel have made huge improvements to consumer technologies that make BYOD a very real, manageable possibility. Low-level hardware enhancements have extended the reach of operating systems and device-management applications, making it possible for IT to maintain order while still letting users have the machines they want.

With a bit of planning and work, IT can now allow employees to use many of the personal devices they actually enjoy - without sacrificing security or causing too much disruption. Here's a look at some of the most important factors turning BYOD from an IT pain-in-the-neck into an opportunity.

The Case for BYOD

BYOD isn't just about "cool" anymore. For many workers, it's a necessity.

Many Gen X and Millennial workers and customers prefer video chat, social networks, and text messages to email. They expect near-constant availability and immediate responses, and even office-based employees are doing more remote work at off-hours. Businesses support this, expecting workers to be available at all times, yet most employers issue only a desktop or laptop PC. That disconnect is precisely why groups like Field Sales tend to bypass established procedures, and it's dangerous for everyone involved.

The mobile device landscape changes every day. Tablets, Ultrabooks, and an evolving line of hybrid devices fill the gap between laptops and smartphones. With constant media coverage of consumer technology rivaling or surpassing the capabilities of enterprise hardware and software, many employees are convinced that they, not IT, can identify the best tools for their jobs. Modern workers know exactly what they want, but traditional enterprise provisioning and purchasing systems often can't keep up. Managing employee devices can bridge that gap and rein in rogue behavior before it starts.

The Hardware Industry Responds

Simply put, consumer mobile devices have gotten better during the last few years, and IT doesn’t have a good reason to dismiss them anymore.

Consumer devices have long outperformed equally priced business machines, but they've usually sacrificed stability, reliability and security to do so. In the last few years, though, the hardware industry has made up a lot of that ground. 

Features that used to require specialized, custom hardware are now supported in off-the-shelf devices. Mobile device processors now offer low-level features that protect against malware and reduce the complexity of implementing a secure environment. For example, all current Intel Core processors support remote device locking through Intel Anti-Theft Technology. Newer Intel Core vPro processors (found in newer enterprise and small-business laptops, Ultrabooks and even some tablets) add two-factor PKI-based authentication with Intel Identity Protection Technology, and pre-boot system integrity verification through Intel Trusted Execution Technology. These features offload a large amount of the complexity needed to build and maintain a secure system. And since they're embedded at the chipset - applications, malware and nosy users can't alter them.

Software Reduces Complexity

Consumer operating systems have matured, too. For example, we've moved beyond the days of the single enterprise smartphone or tablet operating system. There are now several viable options for each device class, allowing IT departments to base their choices on synergies across multiple platforms, the ease of integration with other devices and total cost of ownership (TCO) calculations.

As the mobile device market has exploded with new manufacturers and form factors, operating system vendors have provided platform consistency. For example, it's now completely plausible for an enterprise to run Windows across all of its servers, desktops, tablets, smartphones, and hybrid devices, while still retaining user choice. A common OS allows IT to share applications from desktops to smartphones, lower training and management costs, and extend the security and performance advantages of a shared infrastructure without having to sacrifice device variety. 

At the same time, its easier than ever to mix operating systems as needed.

The BYOD Payoff

Of course, writing a BYOD policy and building the systems and procedures to support it still takes work. Is it justified?

If you’re willing to expand your thinking beyond this year’s balance sheet, the answer can be a definite “yes.”

Quantifying return on investment for BYOD implementations can be tough. IT should not plan to recoup the costs of a BYOD project through immediate hardware or staff savings. On the other hand, BYOD can create happier, more productive workers and a more secure workplace. 

According to an internal review of Intel's own BYOD program, BYOD creates a huge boost in employee productivity. In 2011, the 17,000 Intel employees bringing personal devices to work reported an average productivity increase of 57 minutes per day. That helps create a halo for IT, positioning the department as a productivity enabler instead of a roadblock, which can help smart CIOs collect political capital for other projects.

While it may sound counterintuitive, a properly implemented BYOD program can actually increase enterprise security by locking down corporate assets and forcing overdue security updates. In the case study above, Intel assigned higher security scores to employee-owned mobile devices than to many of its internal PCs, since all of the mobile devices were subject to rigorous compliance monitoring.

BYOD is here because it needs to be, and because IT finally has the tools to make it make sense.

Hybrid image courtesy of Microsoft. Other images courtesy of Shutterstock.

Guest author Jonathan Stark is a mobile consultant, Web evangelist and an advisory board member at Mobiquity, a designer of customized mobile computing applications.

Until 2007, "computing" meant sitting down to use a PC with both hands. When smartphones came on the scene, we got used to computing with one hand while standing, walking - even running.

As great as they are, smartphones have a significant limitation: the touchscreen. You have to be able to look at the screen, and have at least one free hand to touch or type. If you're doing anything else - driving, cooking or changing a baby, for example - they're practically useless.

This limitation leaves us disconnected for big chunks of our day, which means that there is a demand for a screen-less mobile device. .

You Talkin' To Me?

How will we interact with these new devices? By talking to them. With Apple's Siri and Google Voice Actions and Voice Search, early versions of voice-controlled devices are already here. And more sophisticated versions are on the way. Yes, voice input is imperfect, but so was the touchscreen before Apple perfected it for the iPhone. 

But it's not just about voice commands. A truly voice-activated device would listen to you 24/7. A phrase like, "I wonder . . .?" or, "Who was . . ?" spurs it to action: with blinding speed it searches the Web or your personal database to find the answer - and whispers it in your ear.

Imagine that your mobile device is proactive. It reminds you to grab an umbrella on a rainy day, or lets you know that a friend is at a nearby cafe and would like company. It learns your habits, your likes and dislikes, and becomes acquainted with your friends and family.

For example, say you favor a certain route to work; your mobile will tell you when there's an accident or construction blocking your way and suggests an alternative. Your best friend's birthday is coming up: your mobile knows that you're both basketball fans. It checks your calendar and that of the home team and finds tickets for an upcoming game. 

Be Prepared

In this new world, designing a compelling mobile app just got a lot more interesting. Make a good smartphone app has never been easy. Now, remove the screen and try it again. Sounds impossible. But there are things developers can do to prepare for the next revolution.

1. Create Smart Content.You no longer know where your content will end up. Some devices support cascading style sheets (CSS), others don't; some render HTML, others won't. The screen-less mobile device is just on the horizon. This level of diversity requires that content be truly device-independent. Your content management system (CMS) should contain metadata describing the content, be free of display information (RTF, CSS, or HTML) and organized by what the content is (article, blog, or tweet, etc.) rather than its context (pages, screens and windows).

2. Build Open APIs. Content and services should be made available via Application Programming Interfaces. Think of these APIs as your core offering. Other departments in your organization, registered third-party developers and even consumers should have access them without requiring ongoing assistance. 

3. Start Small. Smart content and open APIs are both back-end considerations. Once it's time for you to build a front-end, start by designing and building for the most resource-constrained device that exists. It's much easier to scale up from a small mobile experience than it is to shoehorn a big design into a little package. 

When the smartphone market is disrupted by the next revolutionary mobile device, you're don't want to have to start over. The principles outlined above will prepare you in a way that is useful in today's mobile computing environment, and for the inevitable disruption to come.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock.

If you promised yourself you were going to beef up your tech skills in 2013, now is the time to get moving.

But where to start? With so many languages, platforms, protocols and other technologies, it's hard to know what's worth spending your limited free time to learn. Based on surveys and data from a variety of sources, ReadWrite has put together a list of seven of the most sought-after tech skills for this year. 

7. All Things "Cloud" 

The cloud computing craze is still going strong, if tech job hiring trends are any indication. Specifically, companies are looking for software developers who specialize in things like virtualization and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) development, with familiarity with Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) technologies. 

According to one survey of IT execs, 25% of companies are planning on hiring people with SaaS and related cloud-computing expertise in 2013.  In general, SaaS and virtualization are both buzzwords often cited as being on-the-rise on job search sites. 

Of course, SaaS and PaaS (not to mention whatever-else-as-a-service) can utilize any number of specific programming languages and technologies (more on those below). Suffice it to say that if a given skill helps companies utilize cloud infrastructure or virtualize any aspect of their computing needs, it's in high demand.

See also: Tech Jobs in 2013: Open Source All The Way Down

6. IT Project Management

One of the most sought-after tech job skills isn't all that technical. Slinging code, maintaining infrastructure and designing software are all really important, but they're kind of useless without somebody to see the project through to completion. That's why certified project managers can pull in six figure incomes and why 40% of IT executives are looking to hire project managers in 2013. 

5. JavaScript (And Related Technologies) 

On the Web, JavaScript is what makes things interactive, especially now that the rise of tablets and smartphones has bumped Flash from prominence. Whether it's the ever-popular jQuery framework or the JSON data interchange standard, companies need JavaScript-focused talent like never before. In fact, JSON is the most in-demand skill on CyberCoders.

It's worth noting that when people say "HTML5," they're often referring in part to JavaScript. That's because what makes Web apps look and feel so app-like is CSS and JavaScript, not just the plain HTML itself. 

If you're looking to learn Web programming, JavaScript is the place you want to end up. If you want to start slow, a framework like jQuery could be the way to go. 

4. Java / J2EE

Java and the J2EE development platform are popping up more and more on job hiring boards. Indeed, Java/J2EE developers are going to be in high demand throughout 2013, according to a survey from Dice. 

Unlike hot new technologies like Android development and HTML5, demand for Java skills has been fairly consistent over time, although it has been on the rise in the last few years. 

3. PHP / MySQL

It may lack the sexiness of mobile development or newer Web programming technologies, but PHP is still very important. The open source scripting language runs on more than 20 million websites and powers high-profile sites we deal with every day, including Facebook and Wikipedia. Any blog, news site or other website built using Wordpress or Drupal is making use of PHP as well. It's all over the Web, even if you can't see it by clicking "view source." 

PHP is currently ranked as the most sought-after skill on Elance, with MySQL and Wordpress also cracking the top ten. There are more than a quarter of a million PHP programming gigs listed on Elance alone. 

2. iOS Development

It comes as no surprise that iOS developers are sought after. Most sources that track job talent demand rank iOS development or related skills like Xcode and Objective-C programming very highly. As Apple's sales in both tablets and smartphones has exploded, so too has the demand for developers who can build apps for the iOS ecosystem. 

iPhone and iPad development have been trendy for a few years now, but it's actually accelerated pretty dramatically in the last two years. After years of slow but steady growth, demand for iOS development skyrocketed over the course of 2011 and 2012, according to data from the job aggregator site Indeed. If you've been meaning to try your hand at building apps for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, now is a good time to get into it. 

1. HTML5 / CSS

Where would the Web be without HTML? Nowhere, really. This simple markup language is literally what the Web is made of, with cascading style sheets (CSS) making everything look nice and JavaScript adding interactive functionality. 

It's only natural that the language at the heart of the Web would be in high demand, even as native mobile app development and back-end cloud technologies command bigger ad bigger chunks of IT budgets. In fact, as tablets, smartphones and cloud-hosted services proliferate, the importance of the Web grows along with it. Consumers still need to access their cloud-hosted SaaS services via their Web browser. And studies show that tablet owners still love the Web. 

After years of relative stagnation, HTML has made big advances in recent years with HTML5, which is now supported by the latest versions of all major Web browsers. Meanwhile, the design options available via CSS3 and the interactivity provided by JavaScript have pushed the Web even further, blurring the line between Web-based and native apps. 

HTML5 makes a 23-year-old markup language cool again - and back in high demand. Elance and Indeed both rank HTML as one of their most sought-after job skills, while other studies routinely point to it being in strong demand.

As a bonus, it's relatively easy to learn compared to the other skills on our list.

PHP photo by Robert Agthe.

The evolution of human society has been closely related to the technology that it has produced. We have gone from the Stone Age, to the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, the Industrial Revolution and now Silicon Era. We have seen technological innovations change the lives of billions, from indoor plumbing to the printing press, the telephone to the personal computer. Assessing the history of the world, we have a lot of technology to be thankful for.

So today, on Thanksgiving, the folks at ReadWrite would like to spare a moment to give a shout out to some of the technologies that make life better, from big sweeping innovations that have fundamentally changed how we live our lives, to little items like apps and services that make every day a little more enjoyable. 

Touchscreens

A variety of factors have come together to create the new Mobile Era of computing with smartphones and tablets. There is no doubt that the capacitive multi-touch screen has changed the very nature of human-computer interaction and led us down a new era of computing. 

Without the evolution of the touchscreen from single touch to multi-touch, we would not have iPhones, Androids, Windows Phones, iPads and a variety of other meaningful devices. The touchscreen interface was a spur to the Mobile Revolution and a critical inspiration to the countless applications and companies that thrive off them. 

Ubiquitous Cloud Computing

Another important factor in the spread of the Mobile Era has been the spread and availability of cloud computing. Our smartphones and tablets are powerful little computers, but they the would be a lot less useful if they had to rely on local storage and processing.  Enter cloud computing, where complex calculations, data sorting and storage can be done on some remote server and then connected to the smartphone through a cellular data connection. Cloud computing is the backbone of mobile and some of our favorite services and apps could not exist without it.

Cloud computing is also changing the way enterprises and IT departments do business. The need for giant datacenters holding big, dedicated sets of servers has been mitigated by the availability of the cloud - where someone else deals with those datacenters. More than any other industry, cloud computing is changing the way IT operates. 

The cloud has changed the way people store their own data, such as notes and recordings, videos and music. Evernote would not exist without the cloud. Spotify would not exist without the cloud. Netflix, Hulu and Amazon’s Video On Demand would not exist without cloud computing. Truly, the ubiquitous cloud is a technology to be thankful for. 

Long Term Evolution (4G)

The other big advance in enabling mobile technology was the advent of extremely fast wireless data connections. As such, Long Term Evolution (LTE) is something to be supremely thankful for. LTE is what most of the big global cellular carriers are rolling out for their next-generation wireless plans. Here in the United States, LTE for most smartphone users is nearly a reality. 

LTE lets us use apps that dd not have run well on 3G (or earlier generations) data services. It streamlines the connection and can creates speeds that often best your home Wi-Fi . The best part? It too will soon be ubiquitous. Once upon a time, people dreamed of blanketing the world with Wi-Fi to keep everybody connected at all times. Instead, we have LTE and it has the potential to be faster and more reliable than anything that came before. 

But Wait, There's More!

The ReadWrite team is thankful for a lot of other technologies, too, including the little things that may not have changed the world, but that make day-to-day life easier and that much more enjoyable:

Cormac Foster, the author of our popular Deathwatch series, is thankful for Wi-Fi. Despite the advent of LTE, Wi-Fi remains surprisingly available and, usually, free! What's not to be thankful for?

Our managing editor Fredric Paul - along with our crack writer Brian Proffitt - are thankful for video conferencing innovations like Skype, FaceTime or Google Video Chat.  “Skype, because I remember a world where long distance calls were luxuries,” Proffitt says. For Paul, the reason was more family oriented: “I'm grateful for video conferencing that really works - so I can at least see my distant loved ones over the holidays.”

Taylor Hatmaker, who covers all things social, is thankful for Spotify. I wholeheartedly agree. Spotify is perhaps my most-used app of all time. Hatmaker is also grateful for “the Nexus 4.” 

Writer Adam Popescu is thankful for notebook computers and laptops. 

Finallly, senior writer Jon Mitchell - who created our Pause series about how to balance technology with the rest of your life - took a slightly different approch: “I'm thankful for Do Not Disturb mode in iOS 6.”

On Thanksgiving, at least, aren’t we all?

What technologies are you thankful for? Let us know in the comments. 

I've been thinking a lot lately about how much time I spend on the Internet, and worrying that it's too much. When I joined ReadWrite I was surprised to discover that my new colleagues are struggling with the same issue. Just last week Jon Mitchell wrote two great pieces about this: Four Days Of Digital Detox: The Ultimate Tech Decelerator and Confessions of a Professional Internet Addict. Those came on the heels of a story by Brian Proffitt, Why I'm Joining The Movement To Stop Answering After-Hours Email.

Those articles all argued (albeit not in so many words) that everyone needs to get off the Internet on a regular basis. They resonated so much with me and the rest of our staff that we've created a new series called "ReadWrite Pause" to explore issues around finding the right balance of online and offline life.

Less Is More, More Or Less

Maybe it seems weird that an Internet publication, especially one devoted to covering technology, would be urging people to spend less time online. But here we are. 

I'm guessing that a lot of our readers are like us, and have mixed feelings about how much time we're all spending online. And maybe, if we all put our heads together, we can find a solution.

In my case it's all about my kids. They're twins, age 7. I have this terrible fear that they're going to remember me as some old guy who lived in their house when they were kids and was always staring at a smartphone. Or, worse, they'll remember me as some guy who was always in another city, calling home once a day to say good night.

This week I'm stuck in Las Vegas, living in a hotel, unable to get back to the East Coast thanks to the big storm. Tomorrow I head to Canada. By the time I get home next Tuesday night, I will have been home a total of three whole days in the past four weeks. On those three days I was mostly exhausted, and, yes, even on those days I spent time working at a computer and staring at a smartphone.

I look at what I just wrote and I'm ashamed of myself. Honestly.

And then I think: This is my life? Really? 

The issue goes beyond how we live at home. It's even about how we work.

Work Less. Get More Done.

I was struck this week by this article on Forbes.com by a CEO who outlawed email at his company for a week and discovered that everybody actually got more work done. More important, they all felt more sane and less frantic as "a sense of calm descended."

The CEO, Shayne Hughes, argues that a lot of what email does is just get us all wound up, stressed out - spinning our hamster wheels but going nowhere. 

That certainly resonates for me. Some days (a lot of days, actually) it seems that all I do is go to meetings and then come out of meetings and hack through the email that has piled up while I've been in those meetings. Then it's the end of the day and if I've managed to actually get anything done, it's pretty much a miracle, or an accident.

I know I'm not alone. I've even had people from Google - the most wired of wired environments - talk to me about the importance of going "off the grid," and how this makes people more productive.

This seems like common sense, but maybe not. It turns out there are people who believe that being online 24x7 is a fantastic way to live. 

Some Folks Seem To Like Staying Connected

Earlier this week ReadWrite published a really fascinating interview with YouTube pundit Chris Pirillo who said he never disconnects, doesn't want to. His one hobby involves playing with Legos, but he's so busy with his online life that he doesn't have time for Legos.

I posted a link to the article on Facebook with a comment that the interview had made me profoundly depressed, and asking, rhetorically, whether there is anything sadder than someone who never disconnects from the Internet and is proud of that fact and thinks it's great.

Within minutes Marc Andreessen posted a comment saying, "And yet he's a lot happier than you are." Then David Berlind, a tech journalist, jumped in, saying my comment was "total bullshit" and that I should not be judging other people for what makes them happy. (Berlind might just still be sore because a few years ago I mocked him for predicting, in 2004, that Apple was "on the way out" - ha! - because of the looming juggernaut of… desktop Linux. I know, I know - just give those Linux guys more time and they'll get it.) 

Anyway.

Apparently there are people who never want to be cut off from the sacred umbilical cord that connects us to Mother Internet. (I'm guessing that if you made a Venn diagram of the "24x7 digital" people and the people who are still waiting for the Linux-on-the-desktop revolution, you'd have a big overlap.)

And that's fine, I guess. The fact that some people want nothing more than to be on the Internet, at all times, only makes the subject more interesting.

I will tell you that earlier this summer my family spent a weekend at an Appalachian Mountain Club hut in New Hampshire, a place with no heat or electricity. We brought no iPads, no smartphones. No electronics at all. It poured rain the whole time. We stayed in the hut and played cards. We talked. It might have been the best time we have ever had as a family.

And it made me wonder: If you live entirely on the Internet, are you even living? I'm fascinated by the Singularity movement, where the vision is that someday (not so long from now, if you believe Ray Kurzweil) the biological and the digital will become so thoroughly enmeshed that we won't be able to tell one from the other.

For a lot of us, a kind of virtual Singularity is already where we're living. Maybe it's just a personal decision. Maybe everyone has to find the balance that works for them. 

That's the conversation we're hoping to start with ReadWrite Pause. Where do you come down on this? Are you wired in at all times, and ecstatic about it? Or do you worry about how much time you spend online? What would be your ideal balance? And how can you achieve it?