As our world becomes ever more technologically advanced, one can argue that it becomes increasingly difficult to survive and make a living without access to technology. In class we have discussed the omnipresence of technology in our college experience, and how most of us don’t believe we would be able to succeed and do well in our classes, at least to the same extent, without technology. However, the rapid pace at which technology is developing also means that communities without this access to technology are rapidly becoming further and further out of the reach of economic success and equity. There are thousands of disadvantaged communities in the United States alone that are finding it harder and harder to compete in this global, technological economy, and a striking example of this juxtaposition can be found in California.
Palo Alto, California, has become a successful, wealth community in the past decades due to the booming technology industry in Silicon Valley. Single family homes can sell for millions of dollars, and have been home to the likes of Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs. However, just on the other side of the now dried up San Francisquito Creek lies East Palo Alto. This community could not be more different from their neighbors; one fifth of the community lives under the poverty line, which shows the stark economic divide created by the technology industry.
One of my family friends, Laura Morton, is a photojournalist in San Francisco, and recently won the Canon Photojournalist Award and an associated grant for her proposal to look at the economic inequality between Palo Alto and East Palo Alto, and document the lives of people who live on University Avenue, which runs through both communities. In her proposal Laura wrote about how there is also a racial element to the inequality of the communities, with East Palo Alto being made up of mostly minorities while Palo Alto being a mainly white community. I think this project will give people insight into how the technology economy causes rapid and great inequality, and hope it will bring to light this issue so that disadvantaged communities have the opportunity to access the wealth of technology that is becoming more and more necessary for one’s economic survival.