The Internet search engine corporation Google has become a kind of anti-competitive mega-company, as the corporate structure disdains conventional leadership hierarchies, encourages employees to practice yoga during their breaks, and stocks its cafeteria with organic food -- as they make a huge profit for their shareholders. The company is a community, not merely a place of competition. It is now younger rather than older Americans who are greater slaves to technology, or are more empowered to find connections with others through technology, depending on your point-of-view. Technology can facilitate collective as well as personalized pleasure, and may...

It is the 'digital divide' is what often separates young people today from their families, not the divide of individualism vs. collectivism, although individualism as a philosophy still dominates American culture in comparison to other nations in Europe and Asia. But perhaps individualism is not always negative, despite Slater's contention, as individualism, even individualism powered by the Internet, can enable a renegade to stand alone and advocate new ideas and philosophies just as much as it can encourage others to turn a blind eye to the needs of others.