Another Loving Resistance Fighter

I am humbled by the words of Neil Postman. “Knowledge is not a fixed thing but a stage in human development with a past and a future”(Postman P.190). When I started this class my expectations were that it was going to present a current view on cyberspace and online communication. I will be honest at the time I thought it looked like an interesting class that would fill credit requirements. Because my goal has been to get the work done, do a good job and graduate as soon as I can. But then what? I’m educated because this piece of paper says that I am. I had lost sight of the journey and was extremely focused on the outcome. Postman’s quote reminded me what I believe we all know but lose sight of and again that is “Knowledge is not a fixed thing”. What I did not expect in this class was a philosophical approach that would make me question some of my motives as well as the motives of others when it comes to the use or misuse of technology. This questioning is not coming from a place of judgment, but more from a place of wonder. This class has made me more conscious about technology and how it is used in our society and how integrated it is within our culture. Woods and Smith gave great insight into some of the technical aspects of online communication that I will admit I still do not fully understand (Introduction to Hypertext markup Language P 213) More than anything I am more aware of how technology rather than freeing us by having access to so much, so often can actually put is in a box in such a way it often makes us lose sight of the big picture. Throughout this class, I have especially enjoyed Neil Postman’s book Technopoly and am looking forward to reading more of his work. I feel at the end of this book I so appreciate what he was trying to impart on the reader. I reiterate what I stated in a previous post that while it has taken me completing the book to understand what Postman wanted the reader to glean, I do not believe he was opposed to technology. He was terrified (rightfully so) that we as a society are going to stop thinking for ourselves. He was afraid that we would stop using our instincts to base our decisions and will rely solely upon what we have been told. All of this based upon that fact that we are building our society and values on a potentially slanted one sided perception, lacking in substance, foundation and independent thought. I would imagine that a few years ago I would not have appreciated Postman’s views as I do today. Perhaps it is because as I look around me I see what he feared, and it scares me too. Technology is truly wonderful tool that can connect us with the world, but it is not and should not be our only connection. We have to remember to pick up the phone and call our friends, we need to write letters and remind people how much they mean to us. We need to turn off our cell phones, stop using Wikipedia as our only research tool and get back to the library. We need to learn from our history not only so that we do not repeat some of the mistakes we have made in the past, but also embrace it today to unlock mysteries of who we are as a human race.