Changing communication

Technology fascinates me. The gadgets, gizmos, and flash have played their role in my current perspective - but, as a teacher and current educational technology student, I am also amazed at how technology is changing communication.

The information and services that individuals have access to via the WWW are astounding. It is so much more than Microsoft Office, email, and instant messenger; it's free (or cheap) phone calls, it's software, it's your latest media (TV, movies, songs, radio broadcasts, newspapers) on-line, and it's communication in visual and auditory pathways of your design. The nature of communication is changing, and (for better or worse) people are creating their own bubbles of reality inside this technology.

The downsides comes from lack of access to technology (ex. lack of fiber optic cables and electricity - but this is improving worldwide) and the pitfall aluded to above of creating your own reality. The latter has been around for a long time, at least as long as journalism. For example, think...