Technology makes our lives easier in many ways. Being able to quickly text someone or ring them on the go rather than using a landline or a payphone is a lot easier when it comes to keeping in touch with family and friends or arranging meet-ups.
Skype and Facetime have done wonders for long-distance relationships, Twitter has helped people share important news as it happens, and Instagram has... well I'm not sure what good that has done to be honest, but it's definitely fun.
On the other hand, the fact that we rely on our phones so much has changed the way we interact with each other. The separation and lack of face-to-face encounters has only become more of an issue with the rise of social media the last few years, and it's become a problem that's hard to combat.
Ashton Kutcher tried to fight against the tide on this one, but the "new social media strategy" he promised to try out this week wasn't entirely successful.
On Tuesday, the actor tweeted out his personal cell phone number - and it wasn't an accident. In a now-deleted tweet, the actor wrote:
"I miss having a real connection w/ real people. My Community. From now on you can just text me. I won’t be able to respond to everyone but at least we can be real w/ each other & I can share the unedited latest & greatest in my world. Yes this is my # (319) 519-0576.”
However, the 40-year-old actor wasn't prepared for the monumentally high number of people that tried to get in touch with him.
Ever get a few texts at once and your phone becomes unusable for a second? Well - imagine that, multiplied by a thousand. People started to share their messages with him, and while some got a reply, many got an auto-response text in return.
After the unsurprisingly high number of responses, Kutcher deleted the tweet a few hours later, but he did promise he will be trying it out again. "I will repost soon... sms is a fragile beast," he wrote, implying that his phone just couldn't take it.
I'm sure when this all starts up again, there will be plenty of interesting interactions shared online. After all, what would you do if you had a celebrity's phone number on hand?
