I’m not the first person to say it, but it’s one of those catch phrases that is funny because it’s TRUE.

I think I got the first rumblings of how true it is last fall at CEDIA Expo in Atlanta. I was at a distributor’s top dealer dinner (what he dubbed their “Winner Dinner”) and surrounded by high tech AV pros. The food was great and the conversation was even better, but there was a palpable tension in the air. Between courses there was a brief lull in the conversation, and our host, the company president asked our indulgence and patience while he checked his Blackberry.

Well, that was the signal. Tacit permission to do what everyone had been waiting to do.

As if it had been rehearsed until we were fully synchronized, everyone at both tables whipped out their Blackberries and iPhones and checked messages. It was like the geek equivalent of a stadium doing the “Wave.”

Since then, if anything, it’s gotten worse. I know I have.

When I pull up into a dealer’s parking lot, before going into a meeting, I check my phone.

When the meeting’s done and I go back to my car, I check my phone.

At random intervals during the day, I check my phone.

If it’s been an unusually long time since my phone has buzzed, beeped, rang, or screeched at me, I check my phone.

I take a fair amount of flak from my wife for being always plugged in, and like a smoker I just sort of deflect the criticism and keep doing what I was going to do anyway.

One friend of mine, who is a VP at a major manufacturer, recently confessed that he has two smartphones and regularly checks them both at all hours. Comparing notes, the heat he gets from his wife is of a magnitude greater than what I get.

On a similar note, a CE trade magazine Editor In Chief here in Canada has not only a personal Blackberry and a personal iPhone, but she also has an iPad and because she has to write reviews of smartphones at any one time will be carrying at least two other demo phones on her person.

If there’s a prize for most connected, she wins.

One day I was sitting at my desk, and realized that I had my laptop in front of me, my iPhone to my left, and my iPad to my right.

That’s when I realized that I might be a candidate for an intervention.

Then again, my rationalization (and who can get through the day without at least one big fat juicy rationalization?) is that I need all this connectivity to do my various jobs. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Can’t stop/won’t stop.