Everything Has a Price

James Carey wrote an article, "Historical Pragmatism and the Internet", that discussed how new technologies such as the telegraph, electricity, the telephone, the radio, television and cable television have all produced the same reaction to society. That is, that the technological advances overcome many boundaries. In reality, people do not recognize that new boundaries, or social borders, are created from the new technologies. When the internet was created, many people believed that the past technological borders from previous technological advances would be broken down and people would no longer be "controlled". I believe that Carey does a good job in explaining that there are flaws regarding the 1990's literatuure produced by the internet. Carey stated that there were three flaws: "1) it was not sufficiently grounded in the historical development of technology; 2) it viewed the internet in isolation, failing to consider the wider technological context; 3) it failed to examine the internet in view of the social, economic, religious, and political circumstances of its users". The article does an excellent job of going back and reexamining previous inventions such as the telegraph and radio and perceiving how society believed that these inventions would be a breakthrough to boundaries that had been established. Carey states, "All social change is purchased at a price. Securing what we want always entails giving up something we also want. Every gain is simultaneously a loss". With every invention, we can observe that yes, these advances do change the borders, but there are always new borders or guidelines introduced even if they are not seen. Every technological advance creates a new border.

From previous class discussions it can be understood how the internet creates a border for society. People who own a website are able to track information about their website visitors/users. Agreed, users are now able to search almost anything that they need to, but in the process may be losing some of their privacy rights. Web pages are now able to obtain information such as a user's interests, relationship status, store preferences, etc. The border that society believed was collapsed when the internet was invented was that people could not have easy access globally to information. The border that was created that people may not always consider is that a person's privacy while searching for information may become comprised.

Cell phones have been the new "hot topic" in our country. Cell phones now have numerous applications that can be placed on an individual's phone. While some of these applications include games, fun facts, and tools such as a flashlight, other applications can be placed on a person's phone that may be invasive. For example, people can now download an application on a phone that states where another user's phone is located. This can be placed on a family member's phone. Even though this idea can be beneficial to track children's whereabouts, is it considered invasion of privacy or just concerned parenting? There's much to be said for the old adage, "Every thing has its price" and "Nothing in life is free".

http://www.techshout.com/mobile-phones/2009/16/att-familymap-service-locates-family-members-stolen-phone/