Chapter 9

Coming back “home” the protagonists realize how attached they’ve actually become to this place and to the peace of mind it provides. He appreciated the social growth that the community fostered in not allowing technology to prevent them from socializing with one another. It seems that technology in and itself was against their main belief of “self-surrender” since that allowed for the possibility of filtering out people with whom communication is not wanted at a particular moment. If that is so, then my argument would be that the lack of it encloses them in this community, sheltered from the rest, thus preventing them from interacting with a majority of people that do embrace technology. Doesn’t that actually reduce possibilities for social growth? I feel that deprives them from getting to know a variety of people and personalities, which is something that I personally enjoy and consider an important part of social growth. Giving the direction communication is heading is highly influenced and facilitated by technology, the ones that do not use those these means actually miss out. Guess that Eric’s point is that for this community it is not the breadth of social relations, but the depth that is important.