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The work of Ong (2002) and McLuhan (2001) have illustrated that how we communicate is just as important, indeed if not more so, as what we communicate about. This idea is reflected in the latter's famous dictum: "the medium is the message". Given this, one can ask what are the consequences for community and sociability when the forms of information and communication are becoming increasingly personalized? These new forms of information and communication are not only themselves increasingly personalized (I can choose to listen to my Walkman, CD player, MP3 player, or use my laptop as my resources allow and as I see fit) they also increasingly allow for the privatization of the information received (e.g. satellite radio technology allows one to choose radio programming beyond the vicissitudes of the local radio market). In addition to these aspects, the new forms of information and communication technology are increasingly personalized in the sense that they are technologies one can take with them as they navigate through space (e.g. cell phone, unlike traditional phones, do not force one to be anchored in space in order to communicate). In other words, it is increasingly the individual's choice as to where to receive information or engage in communication. Can community and sociability survive in such privatized worlds; in a world where I can more freely consume what information I want, when, where, and how I want it? Do these new forms of communication enhance individual freedom, or are they technologies for a lonely crowd? These are the issues to be explored in this paper.

Stream: Technology in Community

Paper: On the Personalization of Information and Communication