The study of communication and technology involves research into how technologies influence our world including our perceptions of space, time, power, and identity, as well as how technological changes affect the mediation of information and present us with ethical and moral challenges. Both the message and the medium influence our human ecology. Increasingly, access to technology equals opportunity and power. How did mass printing affect culture generally and literacy specifically Across cultures and over time, who has been encouraged to read and who has not and why Why were the letters on the first mechanical keyboards arranged as they were How does one write hundreds of Chinese characters on a small Western-style computer keyboard or text on a cellular phone How has cellular phone service influenced criminal enterprises and guerrilla warfare The invention of air conditioning greatly reduced the building of front porches on homes, which in turn greatly reduced communication among neighbors who used to spend hot evenings out on their porches chatting. Internet companies are purposefully mixing social with commercial messages and have greatly accelerated the diffusion of innovations including commercial and political campaign messages. The Center for Disease Control in Atlanta now works with Facebook to detect the initial spread of viruses because people who are sick stay home and write about their symptoms giving the CDC the most effective early-warning of clusters of outbreaks. Terrorism and criminal behavior is thriving via the Internet. Electronic banking, medical record keeping, and so forth compound issues regarding privacy.