Geek Heresy By: Toyama

I really enjoyed the first section of this reading, where Toyama discusses how technology has crept into and taken over our lives, but questions if it has helped larger social issues in the long run such as poverty. He speaks about how connected the world has become due to increase of Internet access and mobile phones. So much so that mobile phones could outnumber humans on earth by 2015. This increased access and connectivity has had direct impacts on knowledge, talent, education and social change. However, Toyama questions why the poverty level hasn't gone down in the US since bigger and better technologies have been emerging. Are we not putting our money or focus in the right place?

I also enjoy the section about Technoholics Anonymous which speaks of using technology as a way to solve your problems. I think with the amount of access to the Internet and the amount of information on the Internet, it can be difficult not to search for answers to your problems. I also think that we have been relating human progress with technological progress, but that is not always the case. To go back to Toyama previous observation about poverty - just because we were advancing technologically, does not mean poverty was getting any better. I think we too often get sucked into creating technology for the sake of creating it. Instead of creating technology to mimic reality with things such as virtual worlds, we need to focus more on ways in which technology can enhance reality.