Working from home...

I am continuing to be unimpressed with "The Social Life of Information." Overall, I 100% agree with the general premise of the book, that technology does not exist in a vaccuum, that human personality, social interaction, emotions, knowledge are irreplaceable by data and software. I just don't think the examples used by the authors make very strong examples for the argument. I just finished the chapter "Home Alone," about individuals who work out of their homes. As someone who has successfully worked from home for over 3 years, I do not find the picture painted by the authors, of employees sitting alone in isolation and frustration, dealing with failing technology with no support or social networks at all accurate. Thanks to technology like instant messaging, group chats, audio conferences, webcamps, VOIP, and e-mail, even though I do not physically interact with my co-workers during the day, I still feel quite in the loop socially, I still have the opportunity to learn from my peers, I don't find myself confronted with problems and no way to reach out...but if it weren't for technology, my situation could be quite different. So, far from technology isolating work from home employees, I find it to be quite a source of networking and socialization. The authors seem to ignore this aspect of technology in favor of pointing out the negatives.