ABSTRACT
The impact of rapid changes in human communication brought about by digital technology and widespread Internet use is often compared to the ‘revolution’ instigated by Gutenberg's printing press. Whether this is a fair comparison will be discernible only from some future vantage point, but the fact of the matter is that in a single generation we have a witnessed a series of rapid changes—changes that have been facilitated by technological innovation. Communication devices available in the affluent West and elsewhere are increasingly sophisticated and ever more portable. From laptops, iPads, and smartphones we can access a wealth of information with a few keystrokes. But we can also maintain contact with others through instant messaging, texting, and email, and we can publish information, images, and ideas from almost anywhere. Compare that to a childhood in the 1950s, when two tins joined by a string defined the reach of imagined connectivity. Today very young children play with makeshift mobile phones when they are not playing with the real thing; keyboards and screens constitute the ‘materials to hand’; and video games and virtual worlds are popular entertainment spaces (Merchant, 2007).
