Computers Have Changed Lives Opening

¶ … Computers Have Changed Lives

Opening Section

The undercurrent that is transforming every aspect of technology, influencing educational approaches, the economy, the political landscape, personal and professional, is he growing need for higher levels of collaboration and social networking between individuals, within groups, and between groups of common interests. The exponential growth of the Apple iPod, MP3 players, personal computers, wireless capabilities, anti-virus programs, and smart phones all are related to the need for connecting and communicating with one another. These technologies are used for accomplishing these collaborative aims of individuals and groups, in addition to personalizing entertainment and also having the option of sharing musical and entertainment preferences with each other. The technologies mentioned in this paper are not driving the social change; the social change is driving the change in technologies (Bernoff, Li, et.al.). The collection of technologies that are predominately Web-based comprised Web 2.0 (Snow, 35, 36) and serve as the foundation for the technologies included in this paper. Without these underlying means of collaboration and information sharing, including music and entertainment, the collection of technologies included in this paper would be largely irrelevant. It is in moving closer to the creation of social networks, and in the case of the iPod, the continual growth of musical and entertainment content on iTunes that keeps all these technologies relevant. Even anti-virus software addresses the need for communicating, with high levels of security and trust, verifying the identity of persons online.

Middle Section

Consider the fate of previous generation electronics products and their eventual passing from the next "must have" device or gadget to an obsolete and outdated one. The first digital watches are certainly in this category, as are the first PCs that were based on the Intel 80286 processor. Now consider those technologies that allowed for a higher level of collaboration and connectivity, integration of processes, both social and commercial. These technologies have their accompanying devices have progressed rapidly. Theorists reason that the Internet is having a significant network effect (Agha, et.al) on the entire population of users, making it much easier than it was before to join groups, finding collective identities online, and in short, create as social networking community online. The Apple iPod is a product that has an extended product lifecycle and will not go the way of the digital watch anytime soon as Apple has wisely used it as a platform for joint marketing programs with musical and entertainment providers, including the band U2, which as a specific edition of the iPod preloaded with their entire anthology. Apple sees the iPod also as a communications platform by including WiFi and collaborative tools including a Safari browser on the iPod Touch. From this device through MP3 players the iPod competes with to the personal computers and laptops with WiFi enabled functionality right out of the box to smart phones, they all share a common trait, and that is in their ability to allow the owner to stay connected to the social networks they are members of. And this isn't just about Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace or other hot social networking sites today. it's about the underlying need people have to communicate with and gain insights from others that they trust. If the entire social networking dynamic was boiled down to its purest catalyst, it would be the trust inherent in the connections these social networks provide (Bernoff, Li, et.al). These devices all have increasingly higher levels of security included within them, and this aspect of the ways people interact with the devices mentioned in this paper speaks to the issue of trust and privacy as well. The ragged edge of collaboration in general and social networking specifically is in the fine line between trust on the one hand and the need for privacy as well. Additional functional aspects of each of these devices and in the case of anti-virus software will continually build on and capitalize on how to give consumers relief from walking the jagged edge of trust vs. privacy.

There's also the issue of speed and response that each of these devices imply and the expectations of those that are members of social networks, keeping mind these social networks could be the departments they work in for their jobs. Even the iPod has this speed of response inherent within it from having the continual stream of new songs copied onto it for use during commuting, working out and working. The advent of social networking sites that are accentuating the speed of response include Twittr and others, which support messaging to PCs, hybrid MP3 players and smart phones. Inherent in the social network that is fostering the growth of these technologies that provide options for collaborating and connecting more than ever before is the implied expectation that once someone is contacted they will respond immediately. The urgency of the immediate often overtakes the importance of the longer-term more introspective responses. These collections of technologies need to be managed so that expectations of immediate response from anyone, anywhere is selective and worth the time to complete. Again the role of social networking and the establishment of trust online with friends is the critical differentiator. In the last analysis, the iPod, even though a personal entertainment device is also all about sharing music and entertainment. The PC, wireless capabilities, anti-virus programs and smart phones all exist and are in sue because the meet a more fundamental need of people to collaborate and communicate with one another in entirely different ways, albeit more urgent ones, than ever before.

Last Page

These technologies are going to continue to revolutionize how people work and share information with each other. Patterns of communication globally are emerging that set the foundation for higher levels of trust between individuals and groups that has not been possible before, and trust developers despite these people never actually meeting each other in person. This is one of the key dynamics of social networking and collaboration; people use these devices to connect with each other and also define who they are online as well.