The Lexus and the Olive Tree...

A picture is worth a thousand words!  A woman taking a break from very labor intensive work to talk on her cell phone.  Who is she talking to?  Friends, family, checking the latest world market price for the good they are harvesting, or all of these?  It reminds me of Thomas Friedman's book "The Lexus and the Olive Tree" and the emergence of technology and how it clashes (or complements(?) ) with traditional economies as they exist today.   Is this good for developing countries or does it theaten the "ways" of traditional societies that sociologists/anthropoligists decry? Would substituting Capital for Labor improve their lives/culture/way of life or make it worse?  Are we qualified to even ponder the question because we look at it through the prism of our "Western-orientated" lense?