Brave New Workplace
Again, Pat Gunn here, guest-blogging.
Western societies in modern times are in a state of permanent revolution, as changing technology and wider generation gaps make each generation’s growing environment further distant from generations before. Commentators of various persuasions have commented that society is disintegrating (for the earlier link, stop by your library and pick up a copy of this, although take it with a grain of salt). Society’s types of social ties are changing, with technologically-created new ways to communicate dominant among the youth of today. A common criticism of electronic communication is that it doesn’t tie into human instinct for togetherness, and that people use other foci for that instinct such as television, not learning social skills and losing some substance in the interactions they do have. Speaking as a member of the transitional generation for the strongest of these changes, I have difficulty with online friendships and the like not feeling very real to me, and my impression (which may very well be wrong) is that people who grew up on cell phones and IM from an earlier age see things differently. Whether that (perceived) perspective younger generations have will survive entry into mature adult life, and the long term effects of that on society as a while remains to be seen.
