Class Notes on Technology & Society
9/22/08
What is the role/function of technology in this society/world/age?
Technology changes our behaviors
Is technology for its own sake or all our sakes or the customer’s sake?
Technology as a key mover/a dominant power
Your theory about technology shapes how you view the world
Technological determinism—(Ohmann): is technology the force which shapes history? Is it the driving force? (Ong)—shapes our view world same as linguistic determinism
Is technology devoted to serve the goals of the elites or winners?
Do elite people learn to use technology?
Does technology change who the elite people in society are? (Bill Gates and Steve Jobs)
The counter argument is to say that humans have certain tendencies and they make technology facilitate those tendencies
Alternatives might be war as the determining factor or resources or racism
Technology creates and facilitates isolation
Technology strips away privacy
Technology creates new kinds of crime and new temptations
Technology is not available to everyone—it creates have’s and have not’s; Technology creates inequality or continues inequalities in society
Technology requires new kinds of regulation (Postman)—tech. requires management
To make things easier for people (email—does it make communication easier? Low cost---monthly internet access fee)
Haas talks about whether we notice technology—its material nature—we can treat technology as natural or invisible—which gives it power over us
Selfe’s argument that we should make technology a focus of our work as literacy educators
Hidden costs of technology—on campus computers seem free (tech. fee and the university pays well beyond the tech. fee)
OR to make us unable to do things we could do previously (Plato—writing weakens our memory)
Henderson’s critique—without writing we wouldn’t have Plato’s ideas and Plato made his argument through writing
Ong—writing is a technology—shapes thought
Technology can limit or degrade creativity; brainchild of some people---allow others to gain tools for creativity
To allow remedial people to still live comfortable lives (if you are non-literate/low literate, you can still function thanks to visual technology)
Technology makes the world a small village/facilitates globalization
Technology leads to the development of both educational and communication systems—it creates methods of behavior
How to commodify knowledge/make knowledge a capitalistic tool
Live in the virtual world rather than the real world
Technology permits us to live in a world where we don’t have to be handicapped by real world disadvantages
Not a source of knowledge but rather an illusion of knowledge (google has information but not knowledge)
Can we have knowledge without technology?
Technology enables one person to do the work of many; facilitates individualization