Creating stories to glamorize or demonize technology is easy; either extreme creates a compelling story. IMHO (In My Humble Opinion): A Guide To The Benefits And Dangers Of Today’s Communication Tools addresses both extremes by delving into how the younger segment of society is adopting, and adapting to everything from smart phones to 3D virtual worlds as accepted means of communicating with each other. Those not familiar with technology see this digital divide as a growing generation gap, but the story is nothing new -- it has been playing out for Millennia -- and IMHO shows this through the result of two years of research, punctuated with interviews of sociologists, technologists, and children conducted by the author RJ Lavallee.
Teenagers with their noses glued to small LCD screens, and thumbs pulsing over cell phone keyboards are anathema to parents raised on rotary dial phones. Stories ranging abductions to addiction only add to parental fear of these tools. Within the circles of those creating these technologies, however, are overwhelming stories of hope and promise regarding how these tools can and will continue to bring the world closer together in ways never before imagined.
IMHO deconstructs both views to give parents, or those just filled with trepidation about this new digital world, some tools to decide for themselves what kind of role these communication tools will play in their lives today, and tomorrow.
“I started this project expecting to create an expose on how video games were taking over our children,” said Lavallee. “Instead I was taken over by the larger story that is playing out underneath all of our communication technologies, a story that has nothing to do with technology, and everything to do with people.”
IMHO (In My Humble Opinion): A guide to the benefits and dangers of today’s communication tools is the companion book to a documentary film produced by Lavallee and bent spoon Multimedia slated for release in the Spring of 2009. The projects are also the first in a series of IMHO productions. The second in the series will focus specifically on the effects of technology on business cultures; the pending release date for the second book in the series is the late Fall of 2009.
