Social class has always had something to do with the size of your neighbor’s TV. Over the next 10 years, that TV isn’t only going to cover more surface area, but it will get thinner, become transparent and be interactive with every household appliance.

But in the near future, high social class won’t just mean having high-tech gadgets, but having technology that can make you healthier and even save your life.

The vision of high-tech inventors is limitless. Soon every household appliance will be connected to the Web and be accessible from anywhere in the world. On the way home from work you could turn on the AC in your home, have your favorite show waiting for you and preheat the oven.

Even your T-shirt could be connected to the Internet. A voice-activated chip connected to the fibers of your shirt could send a signal to your best friend’s shirt over an advanced wireless Internet service provider. You could even plug your headphones into your shirt or jacket to listen to your favorite MP3 tunes.

Many of these high-tech advances are already in prototype form and could increase your social status. Some advances will be for more practical purposes, like saving your life. People with health problems can have up-to-date information collected from sensors in clothing and sent to a hospital, allowing for more outpatients, more open hospital beds and healthier elites.

The social rift will affect the health of society. Antibacterial shoes and socks, as well as treated antibacterial bathtubs and sinks, will keep the wealthy healthier than those who cannot afford the luxury. Financially restrained people will not be able to benefit from ultra-clean air filters than can detect and remove viruses or bacteria in the air.

In the future, high-tech toys will deepen the chasm among social classes. Even today children in school don’t feel hip without their iPod and camera cell phone. It will only get worse when those iPods and cell phones are able to contact parents and law enforcement if the items are taken out of predetermined safe areas, or come close to registered sex offenders.

Ethical issues about health industries and law enforcement catering to the upper class will create controversy, and the poor will be left without assistance in a world catered to the “techno class.”

As the United States becomes assimilated into a new world of super technological advances, steps should be taken to prevent any citizen from being left behind. It will be impossible to make sure every child has an MP3-playing shirt, but companies specializing in health and safety technology should work to include the middle and lower classes in the umbrella of protection.

U.S. legislation, already leaning toward socialized medicine, could force American companies to offer low-cost alternatives to Medicare and Medicaid patients if companies don’t take the initiative.

These advances will be on the market soon, and it could be too late to help those who can’t help themselves. Technological integration must be achieved quickly and methodically, or the chasm between the rich and the poor could also mark the chasm between the safe and the sick.