The widespread growth of social networking proves that the ability to reach a multitude of people quickly, instantly and without interruption is a highly attractive proposition for consumers of all ages and backgrounds.

Allow me to use a personal experience to illustrate my point. It is a stark reminder of the power of automated, real-time communication and the extent to which this now forms part of our lives.

Truthfully, there is no major revelation to this story – however, it still surprises me - a seasoned web and social media person.

Just the other day, I was driving my family on the open road towards our holiday home. Traffic was thin and we were sailing along at a good clip. The only problem was the heat, which was intense. It was especially intense on the driver's side of the car, where it was handily beating the air con.

This was unbearable for my teenage daughter who was sitting behind me. Her feet, in search of relief, had gravitated to a cool stream of air coming from somewhere nearby. They had found an air con outlet that was breathing pure relief and were trying to get as close as possible! So close in fact that the toes of her right foot started to slip between the slats of the air outlet in order to get more of the coolness.

Soon enough, her younger brother who was sitting next to her, noticed the drop in the flow of cool air. He saw the offending feet and was momentarily annoyed. Annoyance quickly turned to amusement when he noticed how her toes had arranged themselves in and around the air grate. He started to laugh. It really was a funny sight!

“What's so funny?” we asked from the front. Being the young connected generation Y child he is, rather than explain, he simply used his phone to take a pic of the foot and its missing toes. Then he passed the phone to the front. Everyone laughed.

Spurred on by our appreciation of his sense of humour, he retrieved his phone. Typing quickly he added a title and three clicks later the image was posted to Facebook.

We had travelled less than 1km further when his phone beeped. Someone had already seen the picture and had commented on it. As the scenery sped by, more beeps chimed, first from his phone and then from his sister's as her Facebook friends joined the action.

A picture of interest taken, titled and posted at 120km/h in the middle of nowhere almost immediately gets attention on a social networking site and is quickly shared with a group of linked individuals.

Every now and again, we have an opportunity to stop and think, to marvel at how far communication has come.

Just imagine twenty or thirty years ago, telling someone that in the very near future they would be able to automatically communicate words and pictures to the world at the touch of a button, without any wires or paper required … incredible!

So, going back to toes wriggling with delight at the prospect of being cooled – in its own small way, a private isolated event reaches global status!

If only we could do this for our next big product launch, then we would be cooking on gas.