Re: The limits of technology.

Ryan has written an interesting article over at Silicon Bayou News entitled, "The Limits of Tech".  It prompted two major responses in my mind and the commentary quickly grew longer than a Google+ comment should be.

A few things:
1) Technology still requires hardware. That hardware isn't put together by oompa loompas - http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/06/28/world-s-hidden-slave-trade-includes-forced-labor-in-u-s-military-contracting.html

http://motherjones.com/environment/2010/03/scary-truth-about-your-iphone

2) The digital divide is something I have some experience with through teaching - imagine my surprise as a new student teacher in 2009 when I found out none of my students used Facebook. Here I am trying to make the stupid Greek pantheon relevant by letting my students create Facebook profiles and ongoing status updates for deities and they had to ask me what a Facebook profile looked like. It's a big deal that whole swaths of people are being excluded from the major "successes" of the information age: 

The Internet - yes, I had and have students without internet access at home. Stop and think about how much of your social interaction, leisure, intellectual development/debate, and sexual stimulation comes from the internet. Seriously - when was the last time you had a "You Tube" party? Even by accident. Hey did you see this? Oh how about that video? This one is awesome? There's a large portion of our population that you'd have trouble communicating with because they have no freaking clue what you're even talking about. Example sentences (via Lifehacker) that are all but unreadable without being part of the internet culture:

"How to set up a file syncing Dropbox clone you control."

"If you didn't already get in on the US launch of Spotify, the dominant freemium music streaming service in Europe, head over here and get an account."
"Visual.ly is an infographics hub with tools to create your own."

Personal Computers - it might sound odd and the PC is frequently considered "on the way out" but many of my students have no computer skills whatsoever: can't search, can't manage files on a hard drive, can't use MS Office, can't use a computer. They're not getting any job outside the fast food industry without those skills.

Smart Phones - this is where all the action is for the computer industry. I've observed Smart Phone usage as a major social currency in high school students (the senior class gift was an Android and Iphone app written by the AP programming class). Guess who is left out? Guess what happens to them when their employers and college (even high school to some extent) sees Smart Phone usage as the norm?

As we begin to integrate technology into our social interaction, education, and workplace we need to be aware of the kinds of expectations we're creating. We expect our peers to be able to share viral videos with us (indeed, we want to see them right now - Get out your phone and show me!) because that's the new water-cooler talk. Don't just tell me about the game last night; I need a highlight reel. People who can't do that are going to drift toward the outside of any social group. Using technology in certain forms is a social currency, it's signaling "one of us" or "you're like me" to everybody else in on the club. 

Right now these expectations are set by the same people that have set expectations forever - the wealthy, the educated, the elite. Right now, our technology is clustered (like so many other things) at the top of the pyramid and as long as access to technology is tied to income the digital divide will continue to deepen. 

The technological revolution of the next decade is going to be bringing the rest of our county (or world) into the fold. Whoever figures out how to get the Lower 9th or College Park or Indonesia into the technological mainstream is really going to change some lives.