How we perceive technology has a lot to do with how we use it. I’ve recently written a blog post that talks about how we can personally use the web to support social change. In Five ways to shape the soul of the Internet, I argue that

The social value of the Internet is determined by how each and every
one of us uses the Internet as a communications medium, social space
and support tool. How we experience the Internet in our daily lives —
whether we experience it as a dehumanizing void in which e-mail
replaces face-to-face interaction, or as a meaningful community in
which we discover new commonalities and connections — is a choice we
make every day, with every message we send or browser page we load.
Those choices can add up to personal and social alienation, or personal
and social transformation.