Technophile vs Technophob

The implications that technology has on our American culture is a mixed bag of both positive and negative effects. I believe we all have a good understanding of the positive effects it has had with the the ability to instantly access information, networks, and tangibles. However, I am still on the fence about whether the positives out weigh the negatives. In my opinion some of the negative effects technology has on our culture is the complete lack of FtF community bonds. Although we say that we are wired in, we are are missing many aspects that allow us to bond and connect FtF. Ok - before I get into the readings let me offer a few examples of our past culture that has vanished due to our technocraze. First, our society or changed from open air social farmers markets to iridescent big box marts with cell phone shopping lists. Another technoimplication is the fact that although we are wired to the entire world we barely know or recognize our next neighbor a cordial wave in passing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1cky3eFGJU

As it was pointed out in our reading about the digital divide, although this gap may appear to be narrowing, the fact remains that a digital divide will almost always exists. If you don't believe drive to Seguin, and see how behind that entire community is in relation to Austin , or San Marcos for that matter.

Another aspect of of culture that has changed is the whole concept of social networking. In the 'Leave it to Beaver' days social networking was actually people you knew and interacted with routinely. Now is it can be a friend of friend of friend. A perfect example of this is my recent interview at Texas Monthly (it went great by the way) - I walked in to class told Cindy about my interview and later that night she sent me and name and eddress of a TS grad alum and told me to drop her a line and ask for some advice. Well I did, and in my interview, they said, 'well Shane I received an email this morning from Irene, she said you knew you were a friend of friend of hers and she is very excited that your are interviewing for this position. What a great way to begin an interview I thought - thanks Cindy! Although this is the type of social networking seen on my space of facebook without technology and email this connection would otherwise be lost.

Industrially speaking, from the perspective of someone that works for a newspaper, Mark Zuckerberg's after school innovation of facebook absolutely restructures how newspapers publish information. The ability to share information is not a new concept. In fact when i am in my sells pitch for the paper I often inform advertisers that on average every newspaper is read by 2.5 people. Thus in a circulation of 10K, it is more likely 25K - at least that is what I tell them (and trust me I realize there are many loopholes in my argument but when you sell newspapers in the digital age you have to be able to swim in chest high BS). With that being said, the effect Zuckerberg's creation has had on the rest of us allows us is that it expedites and facilitates our knowledge between our connections and networks. In the study by Ellison, Steinfield, and Lampe they suggested Social networking sites such as Facebook allows people to maintain relations as people move from one community to another. They go on to suggest that such connections could have strong payoffs in terms of jobs, internships, and other opportunities. However, the flip side may be that as people only relying on Internet connections my not possess the FtF skills needed to do well in their own interview. Thus a balance must be reached to be successful. In today's digital age one must be wired and able to interact Ftf.