Using Technology to Disrupt Diversity and Inclusion

To me, technology offers a great opportunity to disrupt diversity & inclusion in so many different ways.  At its core, diversity and inclusion are about the willingness to experience personal growth and personal transformation.   Technology, with its ability to speed up my exposure to people, information and interactions has the capacity to change the life cycle on this process.

Think of the role that social media played in the Arab spring, or even something like the ice bucket challenge, and think of ways that we can increase the exposure that we have to divergent people, ideas, and perspectives.  

Now because we increasingly control what we consume, and because the internet is designed increasingly to cater to our preferences, there is a danger that we could become more narrow.   So many people that I know on Facebook share pictures of vacations, personal events , and milestones....but so many of them are with people who are from their same demographics in terms of race, class, education, etc.   What if we used the tools of the internet to show us perspectives and opinions different from our own?   I know I really enjoy the Daily Show, but to maintain some knowledge of other people's thinking, shouldn't I on occasion watch Fox News, Al-Jazeera, TV5Monde, Univision and others?   

For technology to speed the process and help us iterate diversity & inclusion, we must make certain that use it in a away that achieves that...not to make our experiences more narrow.