Technology and communication

On my way home from the last day of Web Directions Summit this evening, I suddenly remembered that, when I was a child, my dad studied abroad for a year in the early 90s. Mum would send the occasional letter, cassette tape, or care package to dad, and I would only get to talk to him briefly once every couple of weeks or so.

That was many years before we would get the Internet at home and frequent long-distance communication wasn't exactly affordable for us. That's a stark contrast to what we have today. Yet, even without accounting for what we'll have to do to fix the damage that some algorithms have done to us, there are still plenty of opportunities where technology can improve communication and connect everyone better.

It's both scary and exciting.