A new demographic of Americans is beginning to emerge: people who are “almost constantly” connected to the Internet.

While 73 percent of Americans go online on a daily basis, Pew Research Center recently found that 21 percent of those surveyed are on constantly, on smartphones and laptops and tablets. It’s even higher for people ages 18 to 29: Of that group, 36 percent are always online.

You know who you are, those among us who are always checking our Apple Watch or other wearable, and can’t stand being offline even for takeoff and landing on an airplane.

Showers are risky, too. What if something important happens while you’re busy lathering up your hair? It would hardly be surprising if shampoo bottles soon included updated directions for handling suds when an emergency text comes in (“Apply shampoo, lather, check iPhone, rinse, repeat”).

Sarcasm aside, it’s the age of mass connectivity, so people are dutifully lining up with their always-connected devices and adjusting their buying patterns to match. But isn’t it fair to ask whether it’s actually a good idea?

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According to many experts, those guilty of never unplugging pay a higher toll than they realize. Psychology Today published an article on “7 Ways Facebook is Bad for your Mental Health,” including one hard-hitting truth: The obsessively connected aren’t anywhere near as cool in real life as everyone else’s lives online. How depressing is that?

The trend is understandable, though, even if it’s counterintuitive.

The vast majority of workers a generation ago walked out of the office at 5 p.m. like a pack of Pavlovian dogs and didn’t much think about work or business until they showed up again the next morning. There was a reason. The office had all the stuff to do work on — your office phone, the copy machine, the typewriter — plus, all the bosses were there.

Now, offices are well on the road to obsolescence, with kitchen tables and coffee shops blurring the lines between work and leisure. Not only that, but bosses are everywhere at all times, and employees are always on and reachable by phone, text, email. And they’re expected to answer that midnight missive ASAP.

What about school-age children? The effect of being always connected and being sucked into the digital world to the exclusion of physical activity, in-person socializing and actual interaction when together is quite alarming. The National Institutes of Health has established a direct link between technology addiction in children and the incidence of obesity and depression.

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Undoubtedly, the damage to children is worse because kids don’t have the coping skills to deal with the effects, not to mention the traumatic experiences that can create an emotional scar. Even for the hardest of hearts, the likelihood of psychological damages leaving a lasting mark on a child is increased in proportion to time spent online.

Related: Tech Etiquette 101

No one seems to have found an effective solution to guard against cyberbullying, which happens just as much with adults as with children. On Facebook, users are accused of horrid crimes and pilloried by their peers for such abominable microaggressions as supporting the wrong presidential candidate or having an opinion about Caitlyn Jenner as “Woman of the Year.”

Lest we forget, the light emitted from gadget screens, whether they’re computers, tablets or wearables, can also have an adverse impact on the depth and quality of your sleep, too. Something to think about when you’re playing Candy Crush just before you try to drift off. This may explain why your slumber might not be so sweet.

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The conclusion is inescapable: Fighting for freedom now includes freedom from digital slavery.

If Americans can’t maintain a healthy relationship with our devices — if we end up slaves to the power we’ve created — we may have a much harder time adjusting personally and collectively as a society.

If we can monitor ourselves now, however, and teach our children the habit of unplugging, too, we will have a much better chance of achieving happiness, wellness and peace of mind for generations to come.