"Guns don't kill people. People kill people." A saying we've all heard before, and while we may all have differing opinions about gun control, we can all agree that there are some very passionate people on either side of the argument. My question has nothing to do with gun control, but has a similar ring to it: "Is the internet killing society, or are people?"

In some sense, it's not possible for people to kill society. As long as human interaction exists so will some for of society. So clearly this isn't what we mean when we ask if the Internet is killing society. Rather, what they mean to ask is whether the Internet is changing society for better or worse.

The Interweb is still relatively young. In other words, we're still in that awkward stage of life just before puberty where we're still not sure how or why boys and girls would ever like each other. But for some of us our voice is starting to change.

The future is near. New media or social media or the information revolution or (insert catch phrase about new trends of information sharing over the web) has already begun to dramatically change how and who we relate to. Example: with twitter or a blog post I might connect with people that I would otherwise never connect with because they are outside of my geographic location or run in a different circle of friends. Society and culture are no longer bound along geographic regions. Neither are people bound to one single society or culture. For better or worse, the Internet is changing all the layers of our life (paraphrasing Nora Young).

But blogging, facebook, twitter, thats just the start. We're approaching an age of mobile ubiquity. "Six in 10 people around the world now have cellphone subscriptions, signalling that mobile phones are the communications technology of choice, particularly in poor countries..."  We're becoming a world that is constantly connected. 

What will this new world look like where bloggers are the societal curators and a new ecology of information emerges? Four minutes after Flight 1549 it was a twitter post that was covering the story with pictures and all. In one case it looks like a couple of biology teachers sending their student home to watch vodcasts instead of doing homework. Jon Bergmann and Aaron Sams are creating video podcasts which they have there students watch before class. Rather than give lectures in class, they have more time for group work, lab experiments, student-to-student interaction, and student-to-teacher interaction. Not only is this approach radical, its working! Grades have significantly improved and skeptical parents are being won over. More and more teachers at the school are seeing the benefit and starting to follow in their steps.

This is an example of where the Internet actually enabled people to spend more face time together. It's also an example of where to ordinary people questions some assumptions that had gone unquestioned for quite some time now. If anything, I believe this causes us to move into tomorrow asking what assumptions are going unquestioned? And when we start answering that question I think we will find two truths emerge:  

1. We get an opportunity to make some important decisions about how and why and when we will use the Internet and social media to relate to one another. How do we make space for deeper shared learning and at the same time maintain human connections with one another (with my personal bias being towards the variety of human connection we often refer to as "face-to-face")? 
2. There are some things we don't get to decide. One of those things is the decline of information scarcity. Information scarcity will last but a little longer and hoarding and hiding away information will no longer be viable business model. As we build businesses and as we write laws we need to be careful they aren't outdated before they even hit the pavement.

What do you think is the Internet changing our society for better of for worse?