One generation of technology solves the problems of the previous but causes problems of its own. The next generation of technology repeats this story; a story as old as mankind itself. This is the dialectics of history.

Unfortunately a problem, most likely, will not solve itself.

I feel that what social information technology misses is that it is trying, at it’s core, to replace actual, real relationships with technological substitutes. Twitter & Facebook let us follow the minutiae of the lives of others while not actually spending meaningful time simply being with friends and family. In other words, we can consume enough that our relational appetites are sated without actually having to be intimate or honest with people to the point where our façade breaks down and we become human instead of persona.

There hasn’t been a widely adopted information technology† that has made it easier to pay attention to the person you are sitting with.  Or spend more time with a smaller set of people. Or get past the awkwardness of getting to be friends with our neighbors. Maybe there will be in the future, but I look at the past 30 years and see social technology doing the reverse.

†Other technologies, such as windmills, are a different story all together.