Technology is constantly changing, and constantly changes the way we live our lives. As described in Neil Postman’s book “Technopoly”, technological change is ecological. In an in environment when one organism or species is removed, it does not remain the same except for that species, instead the entire ecosystem is changed. Technology is ecological in the sense when a new technology is born it changes everything about our lives, from the way we travel, learn, think and even the meanings of our words and concepts.
“Uncontrolled growth of technology destroys the vital sources for our humanity. It creates a culture without a moral foundation. It undermines certain mental processes and social relations that make human life worth living” (xii). Technology effects us so deeply within everyday life that it changes our perception of core concepts, such as how the TV has changed our meaning of news, public opinion and politics. Writing has changed the meaning of truth and law and the computer has changed our meaning of information. Information in the modern age is the same as data. Our lives have been measured and numbered and there is almost nothing left which cannot be associated with a numerical value. This creates a mathematical concept of reality by categorizing every aspect of life.
According to Postman, technology creates an “undeserved reputation for wisdom” or “knowledge monopoly”. This is caused by new technology which makes old ways of thinking obsolete, and gives an advantage to those who master the new technology. When writing was invented, it made oral communication look inferior despite the humane advantages of oral communication. When the television and computer were invented they seem superior to books in the amount of information that is accessible. Those who do not master these technologies seem helpless compared to those who master living in the new world run by computers.
The biggest effect of computers form of information that is presented to each individual in the community. Now that most parts of a persons life concerns (bank accounts, school work, communication..etc) can be accessed through a computer, it affects our perception of the world. It promotes “Imagery, narrative, presentness, simultaneity, intimacy, immediate gratification and quick emotional response” which begins to effect how we view all parts of life. We no longer want to work for the things we earn but rather expect them to be handed to us. We never focus on one thing at a time and expect to finish multiple tasks at once. This reduces the overall sense of morality in a individual, for there is no time or place to worry about morals but only to get where we want to be as fast as possible at all costs.
Another form of information control is schools. Schools offer only information to students that they think is necessary to complete a certain major or topic, and leave out any knowledge that is useless in the American “hustle” but would be useful for the simple reason of being more human. “If one is culturally literate, the idea goes, one should master a certain list of thousands of names, places, dates and aphorisms; these are supposed to make up the content of a literate American’s mind” (75). Literacy in the modern day is becoming close to expecting the human mind to work like a computer and less like a human. We need to be able to memorize and analyze large amounts of information as fast as possible, but we lose the importance and meaning in much of this information. A good example if this is the very assignment that pushed me to write this blog post. We are expected to write one post about 91 pages from Postman’s book, forcing us to summarize, or categorize a massive amount of information in a short amount of time and length. This is training our minds to tie together similar concepts throughout the 91 pages and categorize them instead of focusing on each concept individually and pondering its true meaning. I could have written a page about each sentence in the book, exploring the meaning and what it meant in my reality or just as easily I am writing about the 91 pages.
Our “humanity”, or what was our humanity is constantly changing. From living in the woods as animals and worrying about food and shelter, we have become organisms who’s biggest stresses in life are numbered, measured and calculated. We run our minds like computers to figure out the fastest way to overcome our stresses in society, such as money, but slowly realize that once we reach these goals our lives are empty of goals beyond that with more meaning. We must learn to balance the positive effects of technology and continue to hold onto our natural human values, which our grandparents who have no idea how to use facebook in their wildest dreams, have a much stronger grasp of than us.
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