Rolodex Confusion

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How old do you have to be now to even remember what a Rolodex is? Rolodex is, of course, still around. Typewriters are still around too.

The question is where do you store your contact information?

If you're like me, the answer is; everywhere.

I'm having a devil of a time managing my contacts. I have frequently called numbers in my cell phone, people I frequently e-mail are stored in my e-mail client and then I have stickies and pieces of paper with contact information passed on the fly on my refrigerator under an Elvis magnet.

This is not exactly a good contact management strategy.

I think I was better off a decade ago with the Rolodex.

Now there's the whole new wrinkle; contacts generated through sites like Facebook and Linkedin.

Contact management has never been more difficult because it is so fractured; personal contacts, networking contacts, colleagues, Facebook friends, Linkedin contacts, people who only respond to phone calls, or e-mails, or text messaging, or instant message.

I am on both Facebook and Linkedin and I get two or three invitations a week from people I know to join their network. So, I can't downsize to one social network. I also have three e-mail addresses, which also complicates my life.

And for the record, I refuse to Twitter simply because it's one more place to manage more connections.

Sigh.. it used to be so easy to just reach out and touch someone.

Renee Oricchio

Renee Oricchio is a technology writer and former supervising news producer for CNN Financial News. She has been covering the computer industry since 1987.