Excerpt
from Interpersonal Divide Interpersonal
Divide hopes to inspire
dialogue and introspection about the import
of
interpersonal communication in the high-tech media age. Certainly, the
topic
merits such attention, for media and technology are here to stay and
will
determine how we will live, interact, learn, and create in the
future. Conversely our
search for community is universal and unique to our
species.
Face-to-face interaction—at home, work, and school and in
public—remains a
powerful mode of communication. As society examines the interpersonal
divide,
seeking resolutions, people will influence the future direction of
media and
technology as much as they will influence people. That relationship
must be
dual and beneficial, however. The Luddite’s estrangement is as perilous
as the
marketer’s spam or the guru’s infomercial. Media and technology offer
opportunities to enhance knowledge and establish global partnerships,
disseminating data and information that can enhance human rights and
participation. While it is true that media and technology also blur the
line
between home and work, with gadgets interrupting us at all hours every
day,
that phenomenon requires us to develop a common ethic and global
outlook.
Because media and technology are mobile, our ethical values must be,
too,
transcending geographic place. Our standards at home must apply as well
at
work. As
we will learn in the Introduction, “The Need to Belong,” not only must
we
discern what TV programming to consume and what PC programs to operate,
and so
on, we also must reaffirm the value of civic virtue and public life,
revitalizing our families, workplaces, and communities. In that vein Interpersonal Divide assesses how,
where
and when we use media and technology and what, why and to whom we
communicate
instantaneously on demand, usually without a thought about the effect
on
conscience, consciousness, and core relationships.
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