Thanks to Leon Gettler’s Management Line for the heads up on a fabulous video showing the managing editor of Forbes magazine struggling to do without his mobile phone and BlackBerry. The challenge was to last seven days – he lasted 40 hours.

This little experiment raises a couple of issues.

First, it is clear from the video that being connected – via email, mobile phone and/or BlackBerry – can be addictive. The experiment’s subject, Dennis Kneile, displays physical symptoms as a result of becoming an isolated island in his connected world. Gettler cites a recent study which has expanded on this.

But the experiment also demonstrates that the real challenge is finding the right balance. Kneile ‘cracks’ because he needs his cell phone to stay in touch with his young daughter – too young to understand an experiment like this. (At 6 years old, she would have no concept of a purely wired world!).

This serves to highlight that all this technology can be useful: who would want to go back to sending faxes and having to find change for public phones – and being out of touch with loved ones?

So – can we have the usefulness without the addiction? We can – but it does take great self discipline. For a start, as I’ve written before, you need to find the ‘off’ button.