Perspectives on the Impact of Technology on Culture

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Book Report Introduction The advancing technology and its equally diverse applications often reflect the growth and development of societies worldwide. However, its implications on the socio-cultural dimension in societies around the world evoke different views and opinions among scholars and other stakeholders across the global society. The impact of technology on the cultural orientations or identities of societies, for instance, attracts divergent views and opinions. Neil Postman, a renowned educator and communication theorist, provides an interesting perspective on the often unspoken impacts of technology on culture. He expresses his concern over the widespread use of technology across different societal dimensions, with emphasis on educating the masses on the need to develop an intricate understanding of how technology impacts society’s way of doing things. Neil Postman’s book, Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology, highlights his unique definition and approach to technology and its manifestation on society’s cultural practices, traditions, values, and beliefs. Provided herein is an overview of some of the arguments forwarded in the book and their correlation to the existing beliefs or perspectives on the impact of technology on culture. Neil Postman established himself as a staunch critic of the widespread use of technology across different aspects of society without paying close attention to the intricate details of its origin, purpose, and long-term effect on how society’s cultural orientation or identity. Born in 1958 and raised in New York to Yiddish speaking family, Postman developed a passion for education and excelled in the scholarly world, as evidenced by his remarkable academic profile. He enrolled at the State University of New York for his undergraduate studies in 1953 and a master’s in education (M.A.) in 1955 from the same institution (Postman, 1993). Postman went on to earn a Doctor of Education from Teachers College, Columbia University to embark on his journey as a passionate educator. Postman’s gained various recognitions for his role as an educator in English and literature including, the 1987 George Orwell Award for Clarity in Language and the Distinguished Professor Award during his tenure at New York University in 1989 (Postman, 1993). His involvement with the department of culture and communication coupled with his interest in the interaction and integration of society with communication media in the mid-to the late-90s prompts him to present his thoughts on the influence of technology on culture. The influx of information from the diverse communication media emerging in the late 90s forms the background of his work in Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology. One of Neil Postman begins with an allusion to Thamus’ judgment of Theuth’s claim that his latest invention in writing is a tool for enhancing the lives of Egyptians, posing that inventors of any technology are not suited to determine the harm or good of their inventions (Postman, 1993). He alludes to Plato’s work, Phaedrus, to emphasize the importance of individuals or users of technology to determine the pros and cons of using diverse technologies in their daily activities (Palma, 1996). It also serves as Postman’s call to attention to the massive influx of information advocating for the use of advancing technologies by inventors based on their perceived positive impacts on society without revealing the negative impacts to the excited users. Inventors of the diverse technologies used in different aspects of society tend to highlight their efficiency in easing daily operations and thus encouraging their widespread adoption and applications (Combi, 2016). The advent of diverse social media platforms in the telecommunication industry, for instance, is an excellent depiction of Postman’s premise hereinabove as their inventors often portray them as appropriate platforms for global communication and expression. Inventors of these platforms hail them as effective tools for championing democratic principles and ideologies, including the freedom of speech and expression. Though technology is characteristic of positive implications such as ease of communication by bridging geographical gaps, Postman calls for individual or even collective responsibility to evaluate the merits and demerits of using such inventions to understand their impacts on the cultural identity of society. Postman provides a scope of his unique approach to investigating the effects of technological advances on culture by providing a range of definitions for technology. Among the definitions provided include, “Technology is what happens to society when the defenses against information glut ...