Implications of social technology

Consider yourselves as users of technology:  What do you think are the implications of using technology for the purpose of communicating our 'social selves'?

We have to be aware of how our physical lives will be affected when living our digital lives.  As I see it, there are two categories of ways that we are affected.  The one that most people think about is the way others will use the information that is shared about us online.  The second category that we probably should think about it how our digital lives affect the way that we live our physical lives.  Both of these categories contain thousands of individual examples of how we are affected everyday by things that didn't even exist in our parents' generation.   For better or for worse and like it or not, all of these things affect the way that we mold technology for our use and how technology molds us and the way we live.


When we think about implications of using technology for social purposes the first thing that we think about is how others can use information about us in a negative way.  I hear about these things every day.  Just in the last year I have heard about:

• A girl was fired for complaining about her job on Facebook.  
• A thief robbed a man's house because he was posting geo-tagged pictures of his vacation on Flickr.
• A women's passwords and subsequently her identity were stolen because she posted too specific of information on social networking sites.
• Children have been taken advantage of for being too open online.  
• Pandora radio was using it's mobile application to upload listeners' personal information to their servers and sell it.

 These are just a handful of news stories that I can recall.  There are probably hundreds of similar events that happen every year.  This can seem very scary.  Honestly, it scares me.  I love using new technologies and application that can make my life easier or more fun, and I hate having to think about how people can use these things against me.  Some days I feel like I would be better off if I threw my cell phone in a lake and moved to a cabin with no electricity.  Obviously this is extreme (and a little unibomber-ish).  
Right now it is hard to tell if a technology will be successfully developed that will present a solution to this or if we will have to continue to handle this ourselves.  Schools are starting to address these issues with courses or modules dedicated to internet safety.  This is an excellent start in spreading awareness of these issues and methods of mitigating against them.  


The ways that digital social communications have affected our physical lives is a phenomenon that some think about daily and others not at all.  These technologies have affected not only the way that we act, but also who we are.  It may have been a fictional television character that said "What we are never changes.  Who we are never stops changing.", but it rings true here.  People will be people.  There will always be young relationships ending, wealth being stolen, employees being fired.  Technology may be the newest vehicle, but that road has always existed.  The way that we carry out these tasks and many others changes all of the time though.  Businesspeople are flying less and meeting virtually more.  Collaboration between companies in distant countries is growing.  Relatives that live far away speak more frequently (and for less money).  The connection with reality weakens though.  It is much easier to break up with someone over Skype than it is in person. Stealing credit card numbers from people is much easier to deal with than taking cash out of a mothers purse while she bends over to tend to her child.  People interact differently when they do not have to look the other person in their eyes.  


Social technology has benefits and detriments.  It can be a rude awakening to those new to it.  In the end the benefits outweigh the detriments.  As technology progresses the benefits will continue to grow and the detriments will shrink.  The decision will not be whether to use social sites, it will be which site to use.  Facebook will find competition and we will see social sites evolve even faster.  Social sites will become more attractive, but people will never discontinue the practice of traveling long distances to visit each other.  That is not a bad thing.  People need to interact directly.  Technology will never replace this.  The same dangers exist in the physical world and the digital world.  There are no new dangers, just new ways for the bad guys to take advantage of the good guys.  It all balances out in the end though.  If you do not want to use social sites because you think you will spend to much time on the computer, or you think you will not update your site often enough, that is just fine.  Do not make that decision because you are worried about negative implications though.