No one in Rhode Island in 2013 can escape digital technology, which in less than a generation has fundamentally changed our society — much as the American Industrial Revolution did, starting with Samuel Slater’s late-18th-century Pawtucket mill.
This technological revolution has affected every aspect of our lives, transforming communication, transportation, commerce, medicine, public health and safety, politics, law enforcement and national defense.
In essence, it has changed the way we live, work and play.
These days, we text, we tweet, we post. We work online at the office, at home or on the road.
We play games on Android devices, watch movies on iPads and read books on Kindles, Nooks and other e-readers.
Digital technology has become so prevalent, so fast and so easy that most of us don’t think about the digital shadow on our privacy, security and freedoms.
Google, Facebook and Twitter collect, analyze, reuse and sometimes sell our personal information. The data can be stored forever.
Hackers crack our computer accounts. Our phone calls can be monitored, our cars can be tracked and our movements can be videotaped, all without our knowledge.
New technology affects us in so many ways that social scientists are still researching what it all means. But they agree that the changes are accelerating — and that our society will never be the same.
Starting today, The Providence Journal will publish #eWave — The Digital Revolution, an in-depth series of stories, photographs, videos, interactive graphics and social media on all our platforms.
We hope people will use the Twitter hashtag #eWave to exchange ideas about our digital culture and how it is altering our lives.