Today's NYT has a story looking at Craigslist and prostitution. It's another good reminder of the way that we are increasingly seeing technology changes entwined with existing societal issues and challenges. In this case, the ubiquity of Craigslist (450 cities, 25m users) make it a pretty attractive tool for illegal sales as well as legal. Money quote:
While Mr. Buckmaster said Craigslist was no different from old-media publications that have long carried sex-oriented ads, law enforcement officials say its scope and format are especially useful to the sex industry. With listings for some 450 cities around the world, Craigslist claims to have 25 million users and 8 billion page views a month. Posting advertisements, except those in the employment and some housing categories, is free, as is responding to them by e-mail.
“The Internet has allowed people to make contact in a way not possible before,” said Ronald Weitzer, a sociology professor at George Washington University and a researcher on prostitution. “Ten years ago this was not happening at all.”
Well, 10 years ago it probably *was* happening, but now it happens online instead of via traditional media. So this is another example of unforeseen or unanticipated impacts that tech has on society, one greater than the hyped buzz about a new web 2.0 product. Dave Winer put up a post yesterday that looked at what Apple is doing with the iPhone and made the point that the way the company added networking to all its computers and then pushed wi-fi adoption had more of a positive effect on the way we live than just the technology. Yet, while both pieces of news were covered at the time, nobody accurately predicted what the long term implications for either were.
What does this mean? It means that the "news" today, or at leas our perception of what is important over the long haul is almost certainly wrong. Phew, I guess I don't have to worry anymore about the google phone, but hey, that silverlight stuff...hmm... ;)