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No other modern technology has reshaped our lives quite like the automobile \u2014and in few places more profoundly than in rural America. Until the start of the twentieth century, rural dwellers typically shopped, worked, worshipped, learned, and socialized within the twenty-mile radius that their horse and buggy carried them. The general store was the town hub, children of all ages attended a one- or two-room school, and a small village church served the entire community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All this changed once gas-powered cars hit the countryside. Between 1911 and 1920, cars on farms alone swelled from eighty-five thousand to more than one million. The automobile and modern roads opened up new vistas with opportunities farther afield, narrowing the urban-rural divide. As one historian has noted, the car freed \u201crural people from the physical and cultural isolation that was a characteristic feature of life in the countryside.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But there was also a cost for this greater mobility. The more time people spent somewhere else, the less time they spent with their families and neighbours. The car frayed forever the tightly knit fabric of small towns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Beginning in the 1960s, landline telephones had a similar effect on families. For teenagers, spending time alone in their bedrooms now meant spending time with their friends on the phone and later on their computers. The members of a family found themselves alone together in the same home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Forty years later, smart phones would bring kids back into closer physical proximity with their parents, but their minds were clearly somewhere else. And it became commonplace for families to argue about putting those phones down, especially at the dinner table. Repeatedly over time, technology has made the world a smaller place, but people are less connected with those living next door or under the same roof.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This also creates new challenges for democracy. Spending more time online, sometimes with complete strangers, has made people more susceptible to disinformation campaigns that play to their likes, desires, and sometimes their prejudices, with real-world consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n