'Yes', says the new editor of Prospect Magazine, Bronwen Maddox.
I have much respect for this journalist having read her in Broadcast Magazine, the FT and Times over a couple of decades.
She adds.
'Yes, I see it, and I refuse to be distressed: the good outweighs the bad, and the change is unstoppable.' Maddox, 2010. Prospect January 2010
Two points I'd like to develop here: privacy and the unstoppable nature of advances caused by e-technology.
Exposure, disclosure and loss of privacy has been discussed in the blogosphere for a decade. I recall the debate starting in 1999 when Ellen Levey (now a director of LinkedIn) had herself featured in the Washington Post. She had spent 1998 blogging about every meeting she had, looking for connections and links and pondering the value of such actions. Since then we've had many people exposed for the things they share online. Facebook and Twitter are simply expressions of the same desire to 'share' with blogs, social networking and twitter different expressions of this.
Are people recording and storing Skype conversations?
Probably.
Especially anyone with an Ego or a mischief in mind.
'Unstoppable'.
There is no going back to a world without e-learning. Though e-mail might be transposed by texting. Though MySpace has been flattened by Facebook (and who remembers FriendsReunited?) Though Google has superseded Netscape - and Amazon no longer only sells books. And at any moment something new will wash over this digital ocean like a Tsunami. (Pinterest? Instagram? StumbleUpon?)
In relation to e-learning I think we've barely started to see or fully consider the profound changes it will make to educaton - those who are e-taught could leave others in the wrong century when it comes to learning and developing potential.
REFERENCE
Maddox, B (2010) Foreword. Prospect. January 2011.