Food for thought.

From the title I thought you must have a fever or something, because I thought the guys who’s all about Social Media was going to describe how much of your time you can flush away on various communities!

Just one more reason… be careful what you wish for. :)

Regards,

Kelly

I think for some, your toliet analogy will apply. However, your analogy is sorta geared toward a specific population. Namely, those who have access to technology on a regular enough basis to find such things essential.

We still live in a world where there’s a technological divide. There’s a very real chasm between the haves and the have nots. There are still kids in our country who can’t even read. Many school districts don’t have quality computers. We are failing our kids in every possible way. If things change in this arena, then sure…this could happen. Will it? I don’t know.

I think technology is indeed necessary in our “modern” day and age. However, we can’t forget that there is an entire population of people who don’t have access to it–and haven’t incorporated it into their lives. They are left behind–to some degree. But some would argue otherwise. We lived for many years without it, certainly. It makes things easier–but is it really essential for our survival? Of course, we could say the same about toliets.

Maybe, then, the difference here is in how much of an impact technology has on someone’s day to day life. Modern essentials like toliets blend seamlessly into our lives. Few people have strong opinions about them (they might have thoughts about the use of such things, but usually not the thing itself…it’s a great invention).

Social technology is much more invasive and dividing, I think. There is such a thing as information overload/fatigue. It may be possible to be constantly connected, but do we really want that? If we did, vacations wouldn’t be so popular.

Personally, I think there will be more of a push to equal the playing field. We’ll have higher standards for the things that are available and how we use those things.

I think a bed and power is sort of the bare minimum for a rental/hostel. In the really low end of housing you may have shared bathrooms and shared phone.

Does this mean that social media will be ubiquitous but at the low end of the scale access will only be through a shared medium (e.g. shared terminals at the library.)

Or is it likely that even at the low end access will be available on an independent means?