Wired From Ear to Ear

As a kid born in the late 1980s, the constant bombardment of new technology is nothing new. Every Christmas and birthday, there is some new gadget to buy - or a gadget that is the same but smaller, better and faster than the one you already have. When I was little, my family had one small, black and white Mac desktop computer, a record player and a television. Now, I alone have a desktop, laptop, iPod, iPhone, digital camera and television. I'm wired from ear to ear.

The implications these new technologies have on communication is both frightening and exciting. I am a huge fan of the idea that the world is made a smaller, more accessible place by our inventions; that we can know what's happening on the other side of the world in a matter of seconds or minutes because of our technical prowess. Of course, there are also negative implications. With increased access, comes increased privacy and civil rights violations. I can only hope that ethics and democratic values will not be forgotten. I by no means support the domestic spying and wiretapping that occurred under the Bush II administration, but generally feel that new technologies will better the world and help us increase our efficiency and productivity.

The future technological predictions in "The Roots of Revolution" and "Trendspotter's Guide" seem plausible. We seem well on the way to using cell phones exclusively and to be able to make calls to a telephone on the other side of the world with little cost. The world will only become smaller in our collective reality. Distance will disappear, information will travel faster than ever, and we will be more connected than ever. It will be interesting to see how things change in the next 30 years, because the past 30 have been a whirlwind...