Yesterday I went to see the new movie Wall-E at the theater. It was an enjoyable movie with a warm fuzzy plot, but a clear agenda.

In the movie, people of the future were obese, self gratifying and selfish. They only used telecommunication to talk with one another. Technology had made them both uneducated and oblivious to their surroundings. The movie manifests society’s ongoing debate; is technology hurting or helping us? Shows like  South Park mock, some writers condemn, and others seek ways to better harness the potential of these new tools.

The movie does raise a valid argument. Someone very close to me became so addicted to WoW, that she cut herself off from the world, neglected her children, and it later destroyed her marriage.

Regardless of the horror stories, we can’t toss the baby out with the bathwater. Companies like trusera are linking sick people with others that have been in their shoes. Others like ideaconnection are connecting people with important and innovative ideas to people with great resources.  The private and public sectors are creating alliances through information sharing.

These communication tools, the community focused culture change, and open access to information give people today more potential to influence and improve the world than ever before. So do we need to hop on a treadmill? Sure. Do we need to get out into the sunlight? Of course, but at the end of the day, the buck stops with us. These tools are tools. It’s how we use them that really counts.