To catch up on my blogs I had to go back and re-read Neil Postman’s article, The Age of Show business regarding technology. It was very interesting on the subject of the internet, it’s is something we have been talking throughout the semester yet I just found it very appealing to compare this article, the first one of the semester to what we have been talking about here in the last weeks of the year.
Postman’s article focuses on technology as a control and a medium and also the biases of technology in the world. The article talks about the telegraph as being one of the first evolutionary technologies invented. The telegraph was a big stepping stone in the world for everything to follow from it grew and improved itself. What I got from rereading the article was the idea that Postman was trying to get us to actually think for ourselves. We are presented with all these technologies and opportunities to further our knowledge but it is up to us to actually use these tools to our advantage. We need to be the ones taking control of what we hear and choosing what to believe is real and not.
Postman also talked about the television as a technology that is being taken advantage of. Such things as the news and political debates was mentioned as being entertainment on TV rather than informative like it’s supposed to be. We as a society need to realize this when we see it and make the proper decisions to understand the real messages being sent out rather than the one that they want us to hear. We need to open the newspaper instead of believing everything we see on television.
Like I stated before, it was interesting to go back and reread this article and see how it’s subject and main focus touches on what we have recently been talking about in class. We have been focusing on Second Life and the internet as a media that many are attracted to. It’s easy to compare how the TV, like mentioned by Postman, and the internet are medias that many people become so involved in due to it’s easy access and simplicity.
A way to further my point on how the internet and TV are at our fingertips I have found a website (on the internet) which has television listings of programs. People no longer have to use such things as TV guides, or god forbid look up shows in the newspapers. It is now at a click of the button and you can find out when the next American Idol is on or what rerun of the Simpson’s is showing.
http://television.aol.com/
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