Technology and Culture

Shaping Technology

    Kalle Lasn, Neil Postman and Robert Samuels all write about the effects of technology on our society and the possible dangers they present. While it is important to recognize the dangers of technology, we should instead focus on how to use technology effectively and in a beneficial way, which many critics fail to do.

    Critics of technology tend to not acknowledge that people are able to control their use of technology. In Culture Jam by Kalle Lasn, the chapter titled Posthuman tells the stories of a few people whose personalities are severely affected by the use of the internet, and ultimately their addiction to the internet. Lasn suggests that these stories, “mark the end of authentic experience” (Lasn 45). However, these stories are extreme examples which Lasn should not generalize from. Not everyone who uses the internet becomes addicted and goes crazy. For example, more people have been able to get education because of the internet. Courses at MIT which used to be only offered to the very smartest people for expensive tuition, can now be done by anyone throughout the world who has access to internet It’s important to acknowledge the danger of some uses of the internet, but I don’t think it affects the fact that people can use the internet to create communities, find information or do many other useful things like getting an education. If someone starts using the internet, it won’t automatically lead to a personality disorder. They as an individual have the power to decide how technology will affect their life.  

    The way people use technology is important. Lasn cites a statistic which says that “Internet use itself appeared to cause a decline in psychological well-being” (Lasn 46). While this statistic is worrisome, it’s important to examine how the internet is being used. For example, a study was done that showed that people who used facebook passively, “lurking” anonymously and not posting or commenting, were less happy, while people who were actively commenting and posting on facebook were more happy. This shows that if we learn how to use technology in a healthy and beneficial way we can extract its benefits rather than its dangers. In the debate about and study of technology we should focus more energy on how we can use technology so that it doesn’t damage us, rather than only point out the negative aspects of it.  

    Individuals have control of their use of technology, but it’s up to the creators of modern technology to ensure that their products are beneficial and can be used in a healthy way. Neil Postman writes about the winners and losers of technology, saying that “those who cultivate competence in the use of a new technology become an elite group that are granted undeserved authority and prestige by those who have no such competence” (Postman 367).  It is true that some will become more powerful if they control modern technology, but they will not necessarily use this power for evil. Producers of computer programs and internet sites should create things that will benefit us and bring us happiness rather than creating useless or damaging products. However, we live in a capitalist society and the consumers have the power to decide what achieves dominance. It is up to us to decide what products are beneficial and which are time wasters that alter us negatively.

    The critic who seems to understand the situation the best is Robert Samuels. Samuels has the right approach when he says that society is evolving to accommodate technology, but more than that we can evolve to get the full potential out of technology and minimize harm caused by it.  In his article titled “Breaking Down Borders: How Technology Transforms the Private and Public Realms”, Samuels talks about some of the negative effects of technology on community and the private and public realm, however he ends by saying, “We adapt to our new technologies and to the new spaces these technologies create;” (Samuels 4). Our society is capable of evolving, and just because the internet has changed some aspects of community, this doesn’t mean that people will stop interacting. Humans are social animals. If we have a need, we will fulfill it despite obstacles such as technology. In fact we’ll evolve so that we can exploit the new technology and environment created by that technology to meet the need. For example, while maybe the internet has hindered people from making friends that live in close proximity to them, people have to learned to form communities online. In Digital Nation  a documentary about the effects of the internet, the story of online gamers is told. World of Warcraft players who have never seen each other spend up to 40 hours a week together, playing in a virtual world and develop intense friendships and even romances. While this might not be the traditional method of social interaction it still fulfills the need for connection with another human being. This shows how society can evolve because of a new technology into something different, but not necessarily better or worse. This doesn’t mean that we don’t need to worry about the dangers of technology or that we shouldn’t still talk and debate about them. What it means is that people are capable of adapting and changing, and that the discourse about technology should attempt to guide the use of technology to an optimal state.

    Instead of only talking about the downsides to technology we should focus on how to improve the use of technology and minimizes the harm caused by it. It’s not feasible that people stop taking advantage of modern technology. Instead we just have to learn how to best harness it’s power. I would like to leave off with a hopeful anecdote. As I was riding the train today, I was observing preteens also on the train who were coming home from school chatting and having fun. At the Palo Alto stop, all but one boy got off the train. After saying bye the young boy pulled out his touch screen laptop and started checking his email. This surprised me greatly because until then I hadn’t understood that this was the generation that everyone was so worried about losing touch with their peers because they were so immersed in their computers. This boy however, skillfully maneuvered face to face social interaction and the computer world, and he did it with more social grace than many of my peers who are often checking their text messages while talking to me. This shows that the generation growing up with computers and the internet are more immersed in technology, but because of that they also know computer etiquette. better. As we discover more about the appropriate use of technology, we will pass it on through the generations until our society has fully adapted to the new technology.