Connectedness

Writing in the NYT Magazine, Peggy Orenstein tries to get a handle on our need for personal boundaries versus our craving for connectedness. She observes that, "the very technology with which we choose to communicate in a relationship has become a barometer of our willingness to reveal ourselves within it."

Asking of "instant messaging, texting, cellphones, softphones, iChat, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter; how to distinguish among those that will truly enhance intimacy, those that result in T.M.I. and those that, though pitching greater connectedness, in fact further disconnect us from the people we love."

One of the boundaries she talks about is where parents review their childrens' text messages; noting "their children don’t seem to mind the breach of trust. Maybe that’s because privacy is as foreign to them as analog television."

Of that last quote, I know several colleagues who fear that it is "trust" that is foreign to them; especially as we have imposed firewalls and filters where we, formally, might have nurtured responsibility and trust; navigation tools for a lifetime.