Individually packaged

Lots of technologies offer room for the individual, while they also help kill the individual. The most interesting and contradictory example of this is the internet. The internet allows people to be individuals by allowing them to do whatever they want, it also makes some people less of an individual. In some ways the internet allows people to be more of an individual than they could be without it, since the internet allows people to do things annoynmously. It also has the ability to take some individuality away from people. Really it isn't the technology that allows or disallows individuality it's whether the person using the technology wants to be an individual or not. If one wants to be an individual, they can use the internet to research, learn, grow and solidify their own identity. If somebody doesn't care to be an individual they can use it to join groups and then conform to the ideas/ideals of the group.

Specifically, within the realm of the internet, the technology of forums allows for individulaity. They allow users to discuss all, and any sort, of idea. The freedom to discuss anything in any manner allows the user to be an individual by being able to choose what to read and what to say. Some forums do, however, also limit individuality by limiting the things that can be discussed and the manners in which they can be discussed, although this is not the technology's fault, rather the fault belongs to those controlling the technology.