The prediction, in brief:

The overall trend seems to be the creation of an information elite at the same time that the walls around our society’s traditional underclass are maintained. Perhaps people are being even more surely excluded from participation, privilege, and responsibility in the information society than they have been from the dominant groups of the past.

Predictor: Turkle, Sherry

Prediction, in context:

In her 1995 book “Life on the Screen,” Sherry Turkle – an accomplished social psychologist, sociologist and anthropologist from MIT whose studies centered around people and computers for decades – writes:”There is … reason for concern when access to the new technology breaks down along traditional class lines. Although some inner-city communities have used computer-mediated communication as a tool for real-life community building, the overall trend seems to be the creation of an information elite at the same time that the walls around our society’s traditional underclass are maintained. Perhaps people are being even more surely excluded from participation, privilege, and responsibility in the information society than they have been from the dominant groups of the past.”

Biography:

Sherry Turkle was the author of “Life on the Screen: Computers and the Human Spirit.” and a professor of the psychology of science at MIT. (Research Scientist/Illuminator.)

Date of prediction: January 1, 1995

Topic of prediction: Controversial Issues

Subtopic: Digital Divide

Name of publication: Life on the Screen (book)

Title, headline, chapter name: Chapter 9: Virtuality and its Discontents

Quote Type: Direct quote

Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Page 244

This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney