Technology has made us hyper-connected at every moment in the day. We’re emailing, posting, tweeting, liking, poking, polling, hearting, reviewing, sharing, vlogging, commenting, voting, texting, pinning, messaging, checking-in and checking-out …phew.

When do we have time to every truly connect and catch up with anyone any more?

This month, as part of the #MidwestMoms program, @VerizonWireless challenged me to do something I hadn’t done in way too long – actually call a friend and have a conversation the old fashioned way. I knew exactly who I wanted to call – my friend Lisa of My Thoughts, Ideas and Ramblings.  Lisa and I “met” online, and although we’ve been to conferences together and I’ve spent weekends at her house outside of Chicago, we mainly connect online through Gmail chat.  It had been a long time since we had spoken, so I called her using my Droid Bionic, which runs on the 4G LTE Network.

I called her one morning after I knew her kids were off to school and we had a nice long chat. We caught each other up on our kids, our blogs, the latest gossip. It was nice to be hearing her and not just reading text or chat words.  It made me wish I was on one of the phones we had when I was a kid, the kind that attached to the wall and had a long curly cord. I miss those days of sitting on the top step of the basement stairs, twirling that cord around my hand while I talked to a friend.

Thanks, Verizon Wireless, for challenging me to call someone I hadn’t spoken to in a while, I really enjoyed doing it!  The call clarity was perfect, and even when I moved into a different room in the house (I get 3G in some rooms and 4G in others), the call stayed connected.  Even though there are so many ways to stay in touch online, nothing beats an old-fashioned phone call.  Why not call a friend today?

As a member of Verizon’s Midwest Moms program, not only do I get to test out a Motorola Xoom Tablet, but I also get to use the new Motorola Droid Bionic phone, which runs on Verizon’s 4G LTE network. So far,  I am loving almost everything about this phone!  I say almost because it does run through the battery faster than I would like, less then 24 hours on a full charge, but the good thing is, it uses the same charger as my Samsung phone, so keeping it charged isn’t a problem.

I appreciate that the Bionic comes loaded with videos called “Guided Tours”. The  Basic Set-Up and Usage videos show how to navigate the phone, how to make a call, send a text, and manage contacts, how to set up email, how to switch to wi-fi, and tips for conserving the battery.  There’s also a terrific online Beginner’s Guide that shows how to set up the home screens, adding widgets, and more. For someone for whom this is their first smartphone, these are all tips that are very useful!

I knew 4G was supposed to be fast, but until I saw it for myself, I had no idea just how fast it was. The most obvious improvement in speed compared to my other phone that uses the 3G network is in downloading apps from the Market.  I click install, and in a matter of seconds, I have my app. It is blazing fast!  The phone is almost always connected to the 4G network, but if I happen to move into an area without it, the phone switches to 3G, and it’s still pretty fast.

My favorite features of the phone so far are the quick contacts and the gallery.  Preloaded on one of the homescreens is four boxes that when you touch and drag down become 20 boxes. Each box is a link to a contact, with a shortcut to call, send an email, send a Gmail, send a text, and for Facebook contacts, view their profile, send a message, write on their wall, or poke them. All that from one quick launch button!

Once I got all my contacts imported to the phone – this eHow article How to Import Contacts to Your Droid Using a USB walks you through it step by step – I chose my four most called contacts for the top four boxes.  Not only is it so convenient to have all those ways to contact my husband, sons, and stepmother right on my homescreen, but it’s nice to see their faces when I look at my phone

The gallery is a carousel of images pulled from my Facebook friends. When any of my friends posts a photo or changes their profile photo, it shows up in the gallery, which is a fun way to see what my friends are up to without having to launch the Facebook app.

So, that’s what I’m loving about the Droid Bionic so far.  Do any of you have one? Are you thinking about buying one? I’m happy to answer any questions you might have, just leave them in the comments!

disclosure: As a member of Verizon Wireless’ Midwest Moms program, I received a Motorola Xoom Tablet and a Motorola Droid Bionic at no charge along with six months of service, in exchange for my participation in the program. All opinions are my own.