Postman's Essay Five Things We Need To Know About Technological Change

Modern technology has seen many debates about its usefulness, its relevance, and its impact on society. Two main parties have bound together, one arguing that the impact of modern technological advancements has had a positive effect on society, while the other side believes that it only makes things worse. In their argumentative pieces, Charles Seife and Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen address the issue of technology in the modern world, although their arguments vary drastically, through the use of various rhetorical devices.

Neil Postman, writer, educator, critic and communications theorist, has written many books, in addition to his recent book Technopoly. He is one of America's biggest and most visible cultural critics, who attempts to analyze culture and history in terms of the effects of technology on western culture. For Postman, it seems more important to consider what society loses from new technology than what it gains. To illustrate this, Postman uses the Egyptian mythology called "The Judgment of Thamus," which attempts to explain how the development of writing in Egyptian civilization decreases the amount of knowledge and wisdom in the society. He traces the roots of technology to show how technology impacts the moral and intellectual attitude of people. Postman seems to criticize societies with high technologies, yet he seems naive to the benefits technology has given society. Postman is a man who is caught in a changing world of technology who can be considered fairly conservative in his views regarding technology. His lucid writing style stimulates thoughts on issues in today's technological society; however because of his moral interpretations and historical revisions, his ethos is arguable. For every good insight he makes, he skips another mark completely.

Author Neil Postman’s main argument in his book “Technopoly: A Surrender of Culture to Technology” is not between humanists and scientists but between technology and people. In today’s society technology has become accepted as a friend, a helper, something needed. Postman argues that “the uncontrolled growth of technology destroys the vital sources of our humanity. It creates a culture without a moral foundation. It undermines certain mental processes and social relations that make human life worth living Postman XII).” Technology according to Postman, creates a culture with no moral foundation, a culture that undermines certain mental processes and social relations that make human life interactive. Technology is a friend but, it can also be

Leo Marx, once a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Harvard graduate, wrote an article titled “Technology The Emergence of a Hazardous Concept”. In this article, the author explores the modern day definition of the word technology and argues that technology offers too broad of a definition and is ill fitting to describe all technical advancements and their creators. Technology can be defined as the branch of knowledge that deals with the creation and use of technical means and their interrelation with life, society, and the environment, drawing upon such subjects as industrial arts, engineering, applied science, and pure science (dictionary.com). On the other hand, it can

“Technology is a queer thing. It brings gifts in one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other,” as quoted by American stand-up comedian Carrie Snow. As aforementioned by Snow, technology is an anomaly itself since it is composed of a staggering amounts of attributes, ranging from moral to physical attributes specifically, that have yet to be established or even discovered. These aspects seem to be established for when it comes to developing any form of technological progress. Even as simple as it seems to ponder the concept of technology, it is rather stunning to process as well. It all seems to be due to the thought of not knowing the outcome of any advancement in technology. Unfortunately, there is also the other side of technology

From the “Writing” sections of this module: The first writing, Cuneiform, developed in Mesopotamian cities around 3000BC. What “big problem” was writing created to solve?

Over history technology has changed mankind’s overall culture. From clock to computers use of technology is occurring every day in all most all situations. In Manjoo’s article “Why tech Is Starting to Make Me Uneasy” he introduces how the latest tech ideas are shaping the future. Manjoo explain new surprise of technology ones felt like Christmas morning, it’s now like the darkened basement. He feeling so bad about tech because he thinks smartphones and social networks might be ruining the world. Also, he explains new tech may well improve much about our lives but may also put millions of people out of work, and some worry that it could wreak global havoc.

Imagine the impact technological innovations have had on society? How much did technology influence society a decade ago, and how much does it influence society now? Technology was created from humans to become a more efficient specie. Although technology has advanced society with respect to technology and efficiency, it has also created problems not previously seen because of the use of technology. Edward Tenner, a writer and technology consultant, wrote an article titled “Another Look Back, and a Look Ahead” published in 1996. In his article Tenner argues, through the use of the rhetorical appeal ethos, compare and contrast, and cause and effect, that society is advancing at an alarming rate and suggests a “retreating from intensity”

When one is reading about the world in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, immediately the goal of society is seen: technological progress. Instead of the manner in which society acts today, with love, family and success being important focuses: technologic growth and improvement is at the forefront. Technology, in many ways, can produce a positive impact; however, when taken to an extreme, the consequences could be devastating, as shown in this book.

My role in this essay, of course, is to experiment the Postman’s comment the context of our course. In the context, Neil Postman mentions that technology is like not an unmixed blessing and technology first gives and then it will take away something from us. It 's well known, I would say that the technology is like a business and it has its own cost. For example, if you spend your money on the technology then you get the access to use it at any time. Under such conditions, we can easily conclude that technology is a business and always comes at a price.

Technology has always been a controversial subject between conservative people and innovators. Some people believe that it is a great tool to connect cultures and improve education and innovation in our society today, but others view it as a menace in our lives. “Growing Up Tethered” by Sherry Turkle and “George Orwell...Meet Mark Zuckerberg” by Lori Andrews both view technology as a dangerous tool. They believe in the many drawbacks of technology and the harm it can do to our lives with no explanation of the positive effects it has had on our society. “Our Future Selves” by Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen plays the role of a positive look at technology and its role in our lives today. It gives examples of how advancing technology helps us and improves so many peoples’s lives. We can use Schmidt and Cohen’s essay as a lens to view the other two texts and gain a different understanding of what they are writing about.

Technology has played an integral part in shaping society in many different ways. Throughout history, technological inventions have changed everything from the way humans are clothed and fed to the very ways we communicate and interact as a species. Examining the effects technology has on society illustrate both how technology shapes culture and society and how society can affect future technology. This can be seen by examining a few of the major technological innovations in human history followed by a look at a new technology and how it may shape future society.

The evolution of technology has changed society in both positive and negative ways. People all over the world use and benefit from modern technology. Technology has simplified the access to many tools people need in education, medicine, communication, transportation, etc. However, using it too often has its drawbacks as well. In most cases, the time of finishing projects is cut by more than half with the help of technology. Many people do not realize that technology has its negative affects society as well, and its rapid advances has changed life for worse in a number of different ways.

Remember the days of the Old West? The women walked around with their parasols or rode in a horse drawn carriage and the men rode fast and furious on their horses. Everything you needed was right there in town: the saloon, the general store, and the barber. When one needed to get somewhere, they would walk. If they needed to travel far, there were steam-powered locomotives. As towns and cities grew larger, it was not so convenient to walk everywhere. There was a need for a machine that could get us around to where we had to go. Technology was becoming a bigger part of the times and the machine we now know today as the automobile was invented.

In today's world, the real meaning of technology is not understood and known by all. Technological innovations do not worry people, unless of course, they are done to things we eat or use as medications or ones that affect our lives in any way. Often we do not think of things such as seedless fruits and antibiotics as technology. However, if we look deep into the meaning of technology, it is bought about my human beings and changes the environment so our goals can be met and in such a case even fruits become technology. (Cowan 301-326)