Michael Walker's List: Tri-State PLP

Real-time Web keeps social networkers
connected



Updated
9/23/2009 9:58 AM
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By Brett T. Roseman for USA
TODAY





"Unplugging is virtually, no pun intended,
impossible," says Dave Wendland, 25, a heavy-duty real-time Web user in
Chicago.














BROAD REACH






The real-time web has influenced attitudes toward:

-- Personal communication.
BJ Fogg, a psychologist who is director of the
Persuasive Technology Lab at Stanford University, says the social web has played
a fundamental shift in how Americans communicate --
and not always for the
better.

Look no further than the dinner table, he says. A surfeit of smart phones,
netbooks and Facebook have changed something as elementary as a family dinner.
"Parents talk to each other while their kids often text friends in another
state," Fogg says.

"There is a generational divide between co-location vs. no location," he
says. "These digital tools diminish the importance of geography, especially in
relationships."

Another sign of the digital times one recent morning in downtown San
Francisco: A street vendor fruitlessly tries to give away free newspapers to
inattentive people using iPods, BlackBerrys. and other digital toys. "I get most
of my headlines from a Twitter feed on my iPhone," says Sonya Jacobs-Burkin, a
26-year-old interior designer in San Francisco.

And there is one thing Sara Wilson rarely does with her smart phone. "I don't
call people anymore," she says. "My friends and I text or DM (direct message via
Twitter) to get together."

-- Privacy.
Indiscreet photos and status updates on Facebook can lead to
misunderstandings and fights, especially among non-Facebook members tagged in
photos by Facebook users.

One major trouble spot is sexting, the act of sending sexually exp

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