Scholarly Article #2 - "The Museum of Me" by Ellen Ullman

In "The Museum of Me," Ellen Ullman essentially says that the World Wide Web has led to the deterioration of shared culture by replacing that culture with sharp individualism. In other words, we don't have to deal with middlemen anymore; we can do what we want without the need for travel agents, shop clerks, and so forth. Ullman portrays this as a bad thing, but has it really been different for the advent of any other media? When the printing press came and people learned to read, they didn't have to rely on the pope to tell them what to think. When live television came about, the audience could listen to a president's speech directly and form their own opinions without news anchors telling them what to think. So is what Ullman describes really anything new? No, it's not.

Also, just because the web can lead to isolation doesn't mean it always does. Sure, you can book your whole vacation from your home computer, but you can also jump on Facebook and have discussions with other people. It's simply a different way of sharing ideas. I do think, however, that overexposure to the web can certainly lead to poor social skills. But that's why we have to have balance in our lives. And it's not a web developers job to babysit us to make sure we have social time outside. We have to be accountable for ourselves, not just blame it on the technology for cutting out the need to go outside. Come on! Take some responsibility!