Technology-Based Social Change

vivekg writes "BBC has published an article featuring the highlights of technological social change from around the world for this year. It is amazing to find out how technology is being used in very different ways for very different communities. Victims of the Tsunami disaster, Virtual Wallets in Japan, and the Indian government, bringing technology to rural areas, all have been touched by the positive use of technology. Hope to see more good community-based collaboration in 2006."

Comments

Too connected?

[Scoth]

I miss the days when I could go out and have a nice dinner without people yammering on cell phones, tapping on PDAs, talking about computer problems, etc. Sometimes I think people are a little too connected and socially technological these days.

I'm sure there have been positive effects too though.

Re:Too connected?

[pete6677]

The problem is that some people do not use good judgement about the use of technology. They must forget that their cell phone has voice mail and that they don't necessarily have to answer their phone every time it rings. Some people just naturally have poor judgement and don't think about why they shouldn't be yapping on the phone during a meeting/concert/church or other place where quiet is expected. I think eventually social manners regarding technology will catch on, and shouting into a cellphone while ignoring your dinner companion will be considered to be about as rude as picking your nose at the table.

Re:Too connected?

[travail_jgd]

Rude people will find a way to be rude, technology or no. The people on cellphones would just be having loud conversations with someone in their company. Some of the folks using PDAs would have their little black books, or planners, or folios with them. Teens always find a way to be loud (been there, done that :).

Sure, there's bad with the good. Technology hasn't changed human nature, it's just a visible scapegoat.

Re:Too connected?

[Marxist Hacker 42]

You miss body gestures, nuances and postures and become completely dependent on technology to get to know a person.

In other words, the rest of the world becomes just like I've been all along. I've got Asperger's Syndrome (NOT self-diagnosed) and I always felt weird growing up. No wonder I'm far more verbal in text based communications than in real life.

Re:Too connected?

[Animats]

I've seen couples in Palo Alto coffee houses where both people had laptops up and running. Twice in the last two weeks. They were dating, not having a business meeting or doing homework. Seeing half a dozen people having a meeting in a coffee shop, laptops at the ready, has been going on for a while. But now people are taking all this gear on dates.

One good-looking young couple had in use, between them, two laptops, two cell phones, a Blackberry, and a graphing calculator. Plus at least one iPod. But no annoying ringtones. They're using the gear, not showing it off.

Girl gamers?

[mister_llah]

This could mean good things for the gamer guys... but something tells me that the author (whose photo looks rather mousey) ... won't be as lucky as others...

Poor guy!

Article hopelessly incomplete

[Anonymous Coward]

Says absolutely nothing about porn

Approaching overflow

[mister_llah]

I have to agree... with the internet expanding exponentially and more and more collaborative tools being concocted... there is a point at which there becomes just too much information out there...

Sure, you can find something on anything, but the lines of truth blur in the presence of so much information... and valid opinions and ideas become easier to overlook...

I don't know, there are definate upsides, it is easier to communicate with people who I couldn't keep in close touch with, but in the old days, they would have just slipped away... and one day wondered 'I wonder how mister_llah is doing?' ... and then they would call me... now... they will know, and won't call, the curiousity is sated....

Plus there is something to be said for face to face conversation and *whoa* physical contact... *shrug*

Women gaming clubs

[Rowan_u]

As far as the article on women in games go, I'd like to agree with the social aspect. That is often what brings the women into gaming. I've seen women pick up titles as diverse as Burnout 3, Call of Duty, or Dead or Alive, but only after being dragged to a LAN party by significant coercion. Once games are properly experienced nobody (Male or Female) sets them down lightly. The games speak for themselves.

What is significant here is the gaming stereotypes that are keeping women away from gaming in the first place. You only need to turn on G4$ T.V. for approximately 5 seconds to see what I'm talking about. What you need to do to bring women into gaming is to stop marketing to 13 year old boys alone. It's pretty simple.

Social change by defeating censorship

[cryfreedomlove]

I have a very positive emotional reaction whenever I see technology being used to defeat censorship from fearful totaliatarian governments around the world. This article describes how the current government of mainland China is struggling mightily to embrace information technology while at the same time censoring personal blogs. Their efforts are futile and I think that in 10 years you will see a very different system of government there.

The evils of Cell Phone use

[timpintsch]

I used to rail against the evils of cell phone use, from 1998 to present as I worked at various ISPs and ISP like entities, everyone around me was showing up with new pretty cell phones that lit up pretty colors and played deceptively good midi ringtones. Constantly these phones were getting smaller, thinner, and louder. And now, I have one. I can blame marriage, I can blame my wife, I can even blame my stepchild. But at the end of the day, it was the hamster dance in Midi that finally sold me.

They forgot something...

[komodotoes]

It is amazing to find out how technology is being used in very different ways for very different communities.

Like surveillance of the masses, more surveillance of the masses, tracking vehicle movements, really tracking vehicle movements, seriously tracking vehicle movements....



NeverEndingBillboard.com

The Next Social Equalizer?

[TheSixth1]

I see one of the big benefits of the spread of these new technologies is in the vein of social equality. Every few decades there seems to be a surge in society that, for better or worse, makes a great change in the way that people interact. I think the surge we are riding right now is acting as a social equilizer that has the potential to blind us to the bigotries triggered by economic status, religion, race, or whatever.

I am not saying that this technology makes everyone equal, but what I am saying is that this technology gives everyone the chance to start out on the exact same footing when they use these new technologies to interact. Whether you connect to the web via your own dual-processor hyper pentium uber-computer with a dedicated T1 at your house or from a free terminal at a public library, the packets are the same. At that point no one cares about your race, economic status, religion, whatever, the playing field is level for you to express yourself. Now, what happens after you post -- that falls back to the current social climate and really depends on what you the individual has to express.

A lot of hopeful thinking I know... but hey, it's that time of year.

Negative changes, anyone?

[tlk nnr]

What about negative changes?

• UK plans to build a national database of all vehicle movements
  
• European Commisions decides to create a database of all phone calls (Only numbers - the actual content will be added to the bill in two years), all sms messages (I'm not sure if the content is included)
  

I'm sure the US list is similar.

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Please click me, it won't hurt

Does this apply?

[Asakusa]

I wonder if this feeling applies to solely older persons. Being 21 years old, I don't remember a time when you could go to dinner without people yammering on cell phones, as you point out. Having grown up with technology, it seems a natural order of life. I enjoy it. I use 3 different e-mail addresses, AIM, my cell phone, texting, Myspace and so on. I have about 7 ways to contact a single person, but it's convenient and it doesn't bother me. Maybe in 30 years when everyone is connected directly to the back of my brain I will reminisce about when we used to use cell phones and PDAs.

Social Based Technology Change

[catmistake]

I think this is a case of wag the dog.

If one thing is clear from the history of technology, its that people do not change. Technology changes.

facebook

[SnprBoB86]

I am amazed that no one has mentioned http://www.facebook.com/
facebook has had an increadable impact on the social lives of college students.

Not to mention, it is an increadable well designed web app.