I really enjoyed reading Neal Postman’s articles and agreed with most of what he said. However, on page 9 of “The Peek-a-Boo World”, Postman says (in reference to the telegraph and photograph turning news into decontextualized fact) “This coincidence suggests that the new technologies had turned age-old problem of information on its head” Where people once sought information to manage the real contexts of their lives, now they had to invent contexts in which otherwise useless information might be put to some apparent use”. I disagree with this statement. I don’t think people need to make up ways to use new technology. Technology is ever-changing, ever-growing. Society is built to handle those changes in such a way that we embrace new technologies instead of freaking out and not knowing what to do with them.
I recently read an article dealing with voice recognition software. Postman could argue that this technology is unnecessary and a waste of millions of dollars. However, I believe that is has made great strides in improving the safety of many things. For starters, banks, casinos, and other things that hold a lot of valuables have voice recognition software installed within there vaults. It is a way to ensure that only the people who are supposed to be in there get in there. More recently, voice recognition software has been installed in some vehicles. This software allows you to pick your favorite music, call your best friends, and get directions without having to lift a finger from the steering wheel. This is an incredible accomplishment considering how many deaths by car crash there are every single month. While it seems like this is just another fancy thing to add to your vehicle, I think that it will drastically decrease the number of accidents from talking on the cell phone or changing the car radio.
It is this reason why I disagree with Postman’s comment. It is true that there are a lot of things that seem to only serve the purpose to entertain or look “cool”. But I believe that many of the technologies present in our society today have the ability to do even more, even potentially helping to save a life.
Here is the link if anyone is interested: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb4893/is_200411/ai_n17954555
1 comment:
I totally agree with your comments made against Postman's reading. I think we can all safely say that he was mistaken in many ways. In your example, he claims technology is only for amusement but clearly thats not true with the voice recognition devices. Not only are they putting them in casinos (like you said) but also in cars! That's awesome. This just goes to show how technology continues to make our lives more convenient. This could potentially become a problem, BUT AT THE SAME TIME, new technologies are in fact saving lives. Having a voice recognition device in your car would eliminate the usage of cell phones and therefore accidents or even deaths. Thats so true. One may look at that as convenience while one might see that as a safety device. I'm just curious to see what else is invented in the next 50 years...
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