Are We Shrinking or Not?

Reading Clarence Fisher's post of February 18 in which he mentions Danah Boyd's mention of a map that was published in The Guardian, made me think of this video which was broadcast recently on CBS's Sunday Morning. The authors, Josh Landis and Mitch Butler, suggest that, while we don't allow our kids to walk as far from home as we used to, they may, in fact, end up traveling more than our immediate ancestors, both via the Internet and physically. It appears that many people are asking variations on this same question: is our world shrinking or expanding? But I wonder if this isn't just the same variation on the alarmist theme that has been with us since the invention of the printing press. Kind of a sub-question that is always kind of ominously floating around these discussions is whether this new world is "bad" for us or "good" for us, witness one of the main stories on NBC's Today show today complete with an audience poll at their main site asking people to vote on one of three options:

How big a role does tech play in your life?
I'm over-wired. I need to cut back on the time I spend on my phone and/or computer.
I'm under-wired. I need more tech in my life to stay plugged in to today's world.
I think I've struck the right balance between the real and virtual worlds.

OK, I've got to go and vote now myself.