Tempering Technology’s Benefits with its Cultural Effects Technology is largely celebrated in today’s modern culture. This is certainly understandable as technological advances harness the collective need to innovate and move forward. While the myriad of positive effects of technology are often recognized, one thing that does not receive as much attention is the potential drawbacks of living in a digital age. In her essay, “Can you Hear Me Now?,” Sherry Turkle addresses the many ways that technology has changed America’s collective culture in a somewhat negative manner. Included in this are observations about a reality of disconnection, lost rites of passage, and the substitution of interpersonal connections with impersonal connections. In “Reality Television: Oxymoron,” George Will succinctly highlights the general decline in substance in the media. In “Television: The Plug-in Drug,” Marie Winn offers a commentary on the tendency of television to contribute towards a breakdown of traditional family life. These observations reveal that with the many benefits technological advances bring to daily live comes an unforeseen change in the general cultural context of society. This thesis is significantly supported by the writings of both George Will and Marie Winn by articulating relevant issues about the substance on television. These two essays strongly support Turkle’s essay in terms of expressing the true problems brought by this cultural shift; however Turkle explains a stronger in-depth analysis on how television has negatively impacted America. One salient point raised is the reality of disconnection—a disconnection from each other and from ourselves, but not from technology. This can be described in the current term of “bein... ... middle of paper ... ...mitted through these devices. It could be easily argued that technology has positioned society on the precipice of significant achievements such as a cure for cancer, a source of sustainable energy, and production strategies that could significantly reduce worldwide hunger. However, as powerful as technology is, it requires innovation, creativity, and intellection—all human specific traits—to reach its full potential. Unfortunately, the negative cultural connotations resulting from this technological revolution have placed society at risk of being able to consistently develop these characteristics in future generations. While the future is indeed bright, a continuing optimism requires a careful examination of the true utility of various technologies and a conscious commitment to regain the most important things that have been lost in this technological revolution.
Neil Postman is deeply worried about what technology can do to a culture or, more importantly, what technology can undo in a culture. In the case of television, Postman believes that, by happily surrendering ourselves to it, Americans are losing the ability to conduct and participate in meaningful, rational public discourse and public affairs. Or, to put it another way, TV is undoing public discourse and, as the title of his book Amusing Ourselves to Death suggests, we are willing accomplices.
In an article ' The Plug-In Drug ' the author Marie Winn discusses the bad influence of television on today's society. Television is a ' drug ' that interfere with family ritual, destroys human relationships and undermines the family.
Most people are emotionally and physically controlled in a virtual world. Today, us Americans probably watch up to 4.3 hours of television a day. Media analyst Neil Postman, has written a book criticizing television as a whole. In the book, Amusing Ourselves To Death, Neil Postman’s son reflected on his father’s book how “tv is turning all public life (education, religion, politics, journalism) into entertainment”. We look into this world as what we see on TV must be always true and letting it take over our daily lives. I will be bringing in quotes from Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves To Death on how this media is draining our minds can cause problems and where we can find a simple balance.
As many people know modern television produces many good and bad consequences to the viewer. However, as a whole, the positive effects of TV clearly out weight the negative ones. In Barbara Ehrenreich’s passage, The Worst Years of Our Lives, she asserts that what’s being televised, immobilizes the viewer from actually doing the activities portrayed on TV. Yet, all the events on television have been imitated from what is going on in real life. Television is not something that drains a person from everyday activities, but something that encourages them to try new ones and escape the crazy, stressful moments of life. Not only is TV something that exemplifies new hobbies that can be taken on, but it is also a moment where a family can come together and laugh at all those funny moments in Full House and The Simpsons. Lastly, and possibly most importantly it informs people on what’s going on around
Postman has valid points when he claims that television and media are destroying the American society. Postman is right to assume that television is manipulating the way Americans think. However, television can provide Americans with both right and wrong morals. Since this book was written in 1985, Postman could not have predicted the influence technology has on the current American population. The theory he applies to television is similar to the theory he probably would have used on modern day media. The dependency we have on media reiterates Postman’s thesis that Americans are losing critical thinking skills and basic human values.
Aldous Huxley, a renowned English writer, once said “Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards.” The advancements that we have made in the recent years are astronomical. However, people of the present time are becoming increasingly dependent on technology and adversely influenced by the portrayal of the media. Initially media and technology were designed to facilitate a person’s life but as generations pass, it has become a liability rather than an asset.
In today's world, technology is constantly changing from a new paperclip to an improvement in hospital machinery. Technology lets people improve the way they live so that they can preserve their own personal energy and focus on the really important factors in life. Some people focus their energy on making new innovations to improve transportation and the health of people that may save lives and some people focus on making new designs of packaging CDS. Technology is significant in everyone's life because it rapidly changes what is in the market. But, some new innovations of technology are ridiculous because they serve no purpose in helping mankind.
When talking about the future of technology, one can only imagine what it will be down the road. The future of technology evokes many questions about the preservation of human existence, human advancement and intelligence. Some writers even discuss their positions on the future of technology and human kind. Writers such as James J. Bell, who explains the theory of the ‘Singularity’. In summary, he states that the rate of technological advancement, compared to human intelligence, will one day reach the ‘singularity’ were it will surpass the human mind (pg. 52). We may never know if technology will ever have the power to surpass the human intellect or what the consequences will be if it does attain these capabilities. Will humans still maintain control over them, or will they control us? Theses eight articles illustrate the implicit and explicit control that technology holds over humans in the future.
Historically, in the relationship between human culture and technology, cultural evolution has lagged behind the pace of technological innovation. Technology is the human solution to fulfilling human needs. As these needs change, new technologies will supplement the old ones; inevitably changing the culture which created it, resulting in a co-evolution of technology and culture; and impacting the future of their culture. The disparate rate of cultural vs. technological evolution has consequences which cloud the prospect of the future of the human race unless we change the historical blueprint and try to thwart our disposition towards ignoring the responsibility we have today for the world we will live in tomorrow.
In Marie Winn’s Essay “Television: The Plug In Drug,” she states, “Television’s contribution to family life has been an equivocal one.” Winn focuses on the issue of television's influence in the lives of American families. Her emphasis is on the medium's influence on children. Although she makes a strong case for the negative influence of television, she fails to consider all of the benefits television has brought to American families. On its own, the television is neither bad nor good. It offers many benefits: awareness, entertainment, and relaxation. Depending how the television is used, it can have a positive, or negative, effect on the family.
“Technology is supposed to make our lives easier, allowing us to do things more quickly and efficiently. But too often it seems to make things harder, leaving us with fifty-button remote controls, digital cameras with hundreds of mysterious features.” (James Surowiecki) Whether or not is known, technology has become too heavily relied on. It is replacing important social factors such as, life skills and communication skills. While technology is created to be beneficial, there must be a point in time where we draw the line. Once face-to-face conversations begin to extinguish, this means that there is too much focus on the “screen culture”. In her writing, “Alone Together”, Sherry Turkle talks
There is no doubt that the accomplishments made through technology are astonishing. Technology has made amazing impacts on everything from science in space to medical science to the devices we use every day that make our lives easier. People are living longer and better than ever before, but we can’t forget how to live without it. “Just because technology is there and makes something easier doesn’t mean we should rely on it so much that we can’t think for ourselves,” (Levinson).
There is a new substantial form of media that has been popularized in recent years that has changed how we as individuals and a society, think, live, share, and create. From the most influential politicization, to the vagabond on the street, every single person is affected by this new form of media and it becomes more substantial in our lives every day. The movie Men, Women, and Children, and the first chapters of New Media, and New New Media, all share a common theme: the attempt to shed light on this medium, called new media, and explain how it affects our lives.
What is culture? Culture: the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively. There it is. Culture defined. Some people are not quite sure what culture is or even how to show it but culture is what a person does in their everyday life. From the food one eats, to the places someone goes, and even the people one hangs out with. That’s culture. In texts such as “An Indian Father’s Plea”, From Frida: A Biography, and “Multiculturalism Explained in One Word: HAPA”, the text show the way one views others and the world based on a person’s culture.
Rosen, senior editor if New Atlantis, on her essay published in Wilson Quarterly in autumn 2009 “In the Beginning Was the Word,” points out how digital technology, especially in communication and entertainment, affects negatively on our lives socially and cognitively. She believes that although technology might appear as sign of our progress as humans, it is withdrawing us from the core literature. Rosen explains th...