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1
 THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL TECHNOLOGY 
By James L. Spradlin
 At the moment of writing thissection, I’m sitting in a semi-comfortable chair at about 30,000feet somewhere above the mid- West heading towards Las Vegasfor a social media strategyconference. My computer, whichweighs about 9 ounces has about7 hours of battery life left. I’mconnected to the plane’s wifinetwork. It seems that FordMotor Company is running somesort of advertisement that allowstravelers free wifi and access toFacebook . They are hoping thatI “like” the new Ford Explorer. Ido like it, but I don’t want to click the button.The fact that this ishappening is strange to me. Yes,it’s becoming more normal, butit’s still new enough to beastonishing for at least a fewmoments.Stop and think about this fora second -- I’m in a winged silvertube being projected across thesky at 550 mph while alsoconnected to anyone else in theworld with Internet access.Before we took off, mycolleague Mike posted a pictureon FB saying we were on our way.I commented -- online -- on hisphoto making some sort of wisecrack. Mike is sitting lessthan a few feet in the row behindme, and yet my message travelledfrom my computer, through thewifi service, out of the plane intoa satellite, back down to Earthfiltering through who knows howmany servers until hitting one of Facebook’s, then back out and upto the satellite, back to the plane,and to Mike’s screen -- all withinabout the time it takes the womannext to me to sneeze. A chat window just poppedup and it’s my friend Matt. He’sstarting his work day back inOrlando.This is the future. We all livein the moment in human historywhere for the first time evermillions, even billions, of peopleare able to be connected nearinstantaneously regardless of geographical location.
 These are two boysthat I met on arecent trip to Tibet. They were one of many children of anomadic family thatmost likely wasvisiting Lhasa, Tibetfor the TibetanBuddhist festival thatwas taking place.When I showedthem their picture,they acted like it wasthe first time to seeone.
FOURQUESTIONSON
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It hasn’t always been like this.Everything has changed so fast.Everything is changing even faster.They say the rate of change isexponential compounding day by day.I was conceived in 1979 and I wasbirthed in 1980. The first computer Iremember using was either an AppleMacintosh or a Commadore 64. I’m notpositive which. My father Jim worked atan Apple store back when Apple wasn’t yet cool. He didn’t wear skinny jeansand no one called him a genius. Myparents refused to get us a Nintendo asmy mother swore that it would rot ourbrain, and so we rotted our brains withcomputer games instead. My motherassumed that if it was a game on acomputer then it must make you smarter-- somehow. To this day, I have a lovehate relationship with technology. I think my brother Bill, who does visual effectsin Hollywood (300, Transformers, Avatar) hates and loves technology evenmore than I do. Of course, that mightalso be because he’s lived in LA to long and has become jaded.The first thing I ever remembering using a search engine for was byquerying Netscape Navigator “how tobuild an atomic bomb” during study hallin the library at school. I was only about12 or 13, and of course had nointentions other than addressing mycuriosity to the question of “what kind of information can be found here”. Itdidn’t take me long to find theinstructions for building an atomic bomb,but luckily (for me) Walmart was all outof the proper ingredients. A few days ago I received an emailfrom an old friend, Brad. You mightknow him as Professor Reisinger. Three years ago I was in Brad’s wedding, andthen a month later he was in mine. Wewent to high school together,skateboarded and played soccer together-- and got disconnected after high schoolbut reconnected after college.Not too long after Brad and Jennywere married, they moved North. Bradand I attempted to stay in contact witheach other through digital dialogue, butunfortunately we were not able to seeeach other in person much over these years.Most of our conversation has alwaysrevolved around the great questions of life, and the intricacies of exploring themnot just alone, but also with other people.I can’t remember the last time I evensaw Brad. Maybe it was a fewThanksgivings ago? I’m really not sure.But what I am sure of is thatbecause we have lost close geographicaltouch, we have lost touch as friends. We’ve tried to stay in contact minimally,but it hasn’t really worked.Of course, I’m sure we’ve both keptup with each other’s blogs, our Facebook posts, maybe even links spit out throughTwitter, but that’s about it. That’s prettyimpersonal actually, and nothing tomaintain a relationship off of -- so I’velearned.Though Brad is unique, thelimitations of connection through thedigital is not. I’ve experienced a decreasein other relationships as well too whereour only connection is through the digitalwires. I’ve tried for years to stayconnected with my parents, but it hasn’treally worked as much as I hoped for. Itwill never replace spending time withthem in person.To compensate, my sibling’s and Ieven went in and bought my parentsiPhones so that we might stay more intouch. We setup a family blog. I wasabout the only one that would postconsistently. We grew a part. In a sense,the digital connection heightened ourfrustrations of not being able to trulyconnect with each other.It was if we knew more informationabout each other’s lives, but it didn’t tastethe same. It didn’t feel the same. That’sit, I realized, the feeling wasn’t the same. At this point, I’ve just had to accept this.And the same goes for Brad. I’ve hadto accept our relationship can’t be thesame unless we spend more time face toface. We’ve frustrated each other, asmost friends do, and even hurt eachother’s feelings through emails or otheronline comments. When you can’twitness the other person listening, it’shard to know if they really are.
 We need to learn to trust eachother again, and that will not happen ata distance. That will not happenthrough email. Trust will not be builtover Facebook.
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Then notice themonk in the blueis holding aniPhone 4Notice theTibetanmonk in redis drooling over aniPhone 3Gwrapped in agolden plasticcaseTwitter @JLSpradlin
 
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Through all of this, I’ve learned that the Onlineconnections with other people are most healthy when set toserve the Analog world -- life without wires.By now, some of you might be wondering why do I sharesuch a personal details into such a topic? I thought we weretalking about social information. Well, we are.It is pertinent you know these things because at the heartof social technology is people. The essence of “changing theworld” through the use of social technology is impacting people -- it’s less about the technology and more about thepeople. At least that’s what I believe. Without people, this topic would be futile. I realize thatmay seem obvious, that people are ingrained in talks of anything social, but it seems for many people the temptation isto shift the focus to the technology. Often, that’s mytemptation. Another common mistake is to focus more on theuse of the technology than the connections provided. In theend, we lose site of what we were trying to do in the first place-- engage with other people. As soon as I forget that, I’m disconnecting with othersregardless how connected I think I am. As soon as wecollectively forget that, we all suffer.
 WHAT 
 
 YOU WILL FIND NEXT 
On the following pages I’ve attempted to answer fourquestions proposed regarding social technology and socialinformation. If you are interested in continuing further indialog with me after reading, take a look at the last pages so youcan find out how to contact me.Or, maybe you even have some good suggestions for me toconsider as I continue to work through this topic. That wouldbe great. Thank you for your time and attention.
“
It is pertinent you know these things becauseat the heart of social technology is people.
Theessence of “changing the world” through the use of social technology is impacting people -- it’s less about thetechnology and more about the people. At least that’swhat I believe.
”
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