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Sunday, February 21, 2010

Technology: Friend or Foe?

As social media becomes increasingly pervasive in our technology-driven society, people are constantly discovering new ways to use social media in their daily lives.

Unfortunately, the new uses are not always beneficial. This past week in Center City Philadelphia, a mob of 150 teens gathered at a mall called The Gallery on Market Street, where they began to wreak havoc. According to an article on Philly.com, the website for the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News, "Philadelphia police and several SEPTA cops swarmed the scene and collared 15 participants - 14 boys and one girl - near City Hall" this past Tuesday.

The catch? Police suspected that the teens used Twitter and/or Facebook to plan and organize the mob! Further, "one teenager told detectives that the melee had been filmed by the participants and was going to be used [presumably online] to promote a party," a detective said in the article.

Personally, I believe that the benefits of today's technology outweigh the potential it has to bring harm to society. At the same time, this situation goes back to the long-standing question: do the positives of the technology (and social media) we have today outweigh its potential negatives? What do you think!?

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