Technology is threading through our lives as never before. Social networking sites spark interactions with hundreds of friends at the tap of your finger.

New “smart grids” soon will allow you to monitor home electricity from afar, saving energy, the environment, and money. Young people are growing up “wired” to, and through, ever-evolving media and gadgets.

How does this new digital universe help or harm our ability to communicate with one another and build meaningful relationships? In the information age, how do we stay well-informed? And what happens to those bytes of our personal lives and data that we share on the Internet? The stories on the following pages offer a glimpse into some of the groundbreaking innovations and insightful research created by UC Berkeley faculty and students as they examine our digitally impacted lives.