After reading the first half of “Technopoly” written by Neil Postman, my take on technology really changed. The first half of the book talks about how technology develops in America. It discusses the damages that technology may have on a society in saying that “technology is both a burden and a blessing” (Pg. 5). This quote meaning that with every technology comes pros and cons. This relates to American culture because inventors are constantly inventing new technology replacing and making no use for the old. For example the lap top replaces the desk top. The lap top made a desk top much less useful than it used to be because lap tops are more convenient. The mentality of America has been the same since humans have lived here which is always trying to make technology better. I also took away from the first chapter that technology leads to technology. Meaning that one invention leads to the next, the example they used in the book that I found very interesting was that if they never invented the ship, then man would not have to worry about contacting the ones that they care about that are far away, therefore they would never have to invent the telephone. The main point that I took from chapter 1 is that technology impacts every aspect of our life and it effects what we are interested in, what we think about and how and what we think about it with. This is still changing in today’s society. The newest technology is still going to affect what we think about and how we do it. A good example of this in the modern day is someone that has a handwriting disability. Someone that has this kind of disability is going to be inclined to use a computer to type so what they are saying is legible.
I also learned a lot about tool using cultures and how they can interfere with religion in our culture. America is no doubt still a tool using country. We use tools for a lot of the same reasons people used tools in the past. I found it very interesting that tools that they invent can fuse arguments in the religious aspect of our culture. For example the telescope challenges a lot of religions theology hypothesis because with a telescope you actually have facts and not just guesses. I found this interesting because it made me think about how today we have a huge problem with religion and evolution. The more we study evolution the more doubtful people become of the accuracy of their own religions. It’s very scary to me to see people that I have grown up with my whole life become more distant from their religions because of the theory of evolution.
Another key concept I stole from the book is the transformation from technocracy to technopoly. The book explains that the reason we made it to technopoly is for several reasons. The abundance of resources and the mentality for efficiency in the United States are some examples of reasons. America was the first technopoly that developed with other nations trailing us. The competitive spirits is what drove the country to efficiency and success. I find it fascinating that the same competitive edge that drove our country in this period is still driving us today. This even ties into the last book we read, when it talks about the different computer companies coming up and different software companies. They were all so competitive that they actually drove each other to success. It almost seems like they would not have been so successful without each other.
One part of chapter 4 that I found fascinating is when it talks about “technopoly is a form of cultural AIDS” (Pg. 63). This stuck out to me the most of all in the whole first half of the book. I could relate this to so many things in our culture today of things just spreading through our culture like AIDS. There are so many examples of this, such as the I-pod. When the I-pod first came out it was a massive hit. I can just remember it spreading through my highschool like AIDS. Technology spreads like AIDS along with many other things in our culture such as fashion and music. I can also tie this in with Chapter 5 because a lot of the times these kinds of technologies are out far before they are released so the companies are hiding information about new technology. I can only imagine what kind of information is still kept from us. The funny thing is that if a bit of information were to leak it would spread like AIDS.
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