For a look at the social impact of our always-wired, technology-driven future, researchers figured there was no place better to study than Silicon Valley.
Anthropologists spent two years observing 14 middle-class, dual- breadwinner families in the shadow of Cisco Systems, Apple and Oracle.
They found parents and children holding themselves together through a fragile network of cell phones, pagers, faxes and e-mails, obsessed with the same goals that drive companies throughout the region: speed, improving productivity, and a constant need to upgrade.
The downside: lives inundated by techno-gadgets, and fragmented into "chunks" of time, leading to increased stress. "The technology was infiltrating those other parts of life and tying them together," said Jan English-Lueck, a San Jose State University professor who presented findings Thursday at the annual American Anthropological Association meeting.
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Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
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Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
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