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In a worldwide study sponsored by Nortel, IDC found a considerable number of what it calls "hyperconnected" users -- those using at least seven devices and nine applications. The survey covered nearly 2,400 working adults in 17 countries.

The hyperconnected accounted for 16 percent of the population in the study. They are using gadgets ranging from phones to laptops to PDAs and even car-based systems. Applications being used on these devices include Web 2.0 applications, such as Twitter, Second Life, and wikis. Also prominent are applications like text messaging, instant messaging, and Web conferencing. Behind the hyperconnected were the "increasingly connected," who use four devices and as many as six applications and account for 36 percent of the population.

6. Allow feeds to overload. Just because you’re subscribed to an RSS feed doesn’t mean that you should be compelled to read it.

7. Set up a chat zone. I rarely if ever use IM or any other kind of chat, but for those of you who need to be connected at least some of the time, you should have a set period each day when you connect to IM.

13. Eliminate the news. Another huge source of information overload is news channels and sites.

Web 2.0 may look set to conquer the world, but it has yet to win over the 69 percent of Americans who failed to qualify as "elite tech users." That's the message from a Pew Internet & American Life report that came out today and provides a glimpse at how people in the US—not just techies—use and feel about the technology in their lives. The report, titled "A Typology of Information and Communication Technology Users" (PDF), breaks Americans into three general categories: elite tech users (31 percent of adults), middle-of-the-road tech users (20 percent of adults), and those with few tech assets (49 percent of adults). Pay particular attention to that last number; though technology marches on, half of all Americans use it only lightly or not at all. When the numbers are broken down further, a full 15 percent of all US adults have neither cell phones nor Internet connectivity.

Those with "few tech assets" make up 49 percent of the US adult population. Many of them have some form of access to the Internet, and most have cell phones, but technology "does not play a central role in their daily lives." Instead of being liberating, constant connectivity is "annoying," and many older users have trouble even navigating the Internet. The 15 percent of Americans who don't use cell phones or the Internet tend to be in their mid-60s with lower levels of income and education, according to the report.