Technopoly ( Second Blog )

     It seems nowadays that the only form of knowledge has official status when conducted by experts and experiments. We use technology to give us data, but information given by a computer in today's society for example is "equivalent to God's will." ( Postman pg 115 ) If we take a look at doctors, their whole role has changed due to technology. Why has their role changed? Simple, American medicine was attracted to new technology. At first doctors used observation and direct communication to figure out what was wrong with a patient. But the invention of the stethoscope, a machine, that bond between doctor and patient was broken. From there on, the invention of new technology has caused Americans to demand CAT scans for headaches and doctors have given in to these to avoid being seen as incompetent.
     If we look at computers, they have had a bigger impact. Computers seem to have no boundaries, it has come to the point that people compare us to machines. The only difference is that "we are thinking machines." ( pg 111 ) I personally think that we are nothing like machines, we have the ability to feel emotions and understand, as where a computer cant. America is most definitely a Technopoly and looking at how we act towards computers its no shock. When a computer gets infected with a virus, we try to make it healthy again so it can perform well. The computer starts to sound more and more like a human being. Society needs to step back and realize that we can live without technology and that it is just machinery!
     Technopoly has seriously damaged the significance of symbols in America. Symbols are very important because they "function like machines in creating new mind-sets and therefore new conceptions of reality." ( pg 128 ) Symbols are inexhaustible, but the more frequent they become used they lose meaning. Technology, especially advertisement has made a ridicule of commemoration days such as Martin Luther King and others, which is used for furniture sale days. Advertisement isn't to be blamed however, technology is. Humans need to become a loving resistance fighter, as Postman puts it. To become this, "keep close to your heart narratives and symbols that made the U.S. the hope of the world." Always remember the symbols such as the Statue of Liberty as the symbols of freedom and hope. Reject efficiency as the goal to life and remember that technology is something that should never become natural to us!