Critical Analysis- Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology (Part 2)

Okay, so after reading the second half of Postman's, Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology, I have come to a few conclusions. The first conclusion is that while Postman definitely holds a biased grudge against technology, he does make some valid points. Throughout the book, he makes references to everything from the negative influences of medical technology in the 1800's, to the personification of the computer, to the transformation that made symbols meaningless. His discussion of the personification of computers is a good example of why he considers the society we live in today to be a technopoly. He explains that since computers have become popular, humans refer to themselves in computer terms.  For instance, the human brain is referred to as a piece of "hard wiring, capable of retrieving data" (113-114). People also refer to computers has having "viruses," which is a human capability. Another example of the negative impact of technology on society is illustrated through Postman's reference of symbols. He claims that once important figures, symbols, and holidays have been rewritten to represent less serious, jargon filled nonsense (167). 

The second conclusion is that Postman goes too much out of his way to denounce the greatness of technology. I feel that the positive qualities of technology much outweigh its negative qualities, but unfortunately, Postman feels otherwise. For instance, he explains that the invention of the Stethoscope and other medical technologies in the 1800's has actually had negative effects on patients' treatment because doctors rely too much on technology and less on their own knowledge or gut instinct (99-106). He goes on to discuss America's over aggressive use of machines in the medical world compared to Europe. While this may be true, we would be nowhere near where we are today in treating many illnesses without these medical tools. To not have these technologies because of a few issues with lack of communication between patients and doctors would be silly; saving lives is more important. Reading on, I am able to come to my third conclusion. It is apparent that Postman must stretch too far out of his reach for examples to prove his point. He goes as far as to denounce social sciences, more specifically discussing Milgram's famous psychological experiment as not empirical nor confirming or disproving to any theory of human nature since the experiment took place in a laboratory setting (151-153). Overall, I feel that Postman has few convincing arguments and that his ideas are very far fetched. While I'm not the most optimistic person in the world, Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology is just too pessimistic for my taste.