The Late Neil Postman

1
The Late Neil Postman

• A communications theorist and professor at NYU
• His short address given at Denver in 1998
  summarizes his thinking about technology
• It also offers a framework that we will return to
  many times during the course.

2
Five things we need to know about technological
change

• Technology giveth and technology taketh away
• Every technology benefits some and harms others
• Embedded in every technology there is a powerful
  idea
• Technological change is not additive
• Every successful technology tends to become
  mythic

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1. Technology giveth and technology taketh away

• For every advantage there is a corresponding
  disadvantage
• Examples
• Automobile
• Print
• PowerPoint Presentations
• Others?
• Key Observation
• What a new technology will do must not be
  separated from what a new technology will undo.

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2 Every technology benefits some and harms others

• Television the printed word and teachers
• Computers
• Who benefits?
• Who loses?
• How did you use a computer today?
• Did these uses replace another way of doing the
  same activity?
• Were these uses a new activity? Are you doing
  something fundamentally different or doing the
  same thing in a new way.
• Questions always to be asked to an enthusiast
  about a new technology
• Why are you enthusiastic?
• What interests do you represent?
• To whom are you hoping to give power?
• From whom will you be withholding power?

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3. Embedded in every technology is a powerful
idea

• To a man (or woman) with a hammer, everything
  looks like a nail
• To a person with a computer, everything looks
  like data
• To what extent are these dependent on computers
• Standardized testing
• Numerical grading of students
• Numerical grading of faculty
• Polling
• Speech favors memory, wisdom (and so
  pre-literatue cultures favor proverbs and poetry)
• Writing and print favor knowledge, logical
  organization, introspection (and so literate
  cultures favor the novel)
• Computers favor information and speed (and so,
  blogs, email and instant messages)
• The medium is the message (who said this?)

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4. Technolgical change is not additive

• A new medium does not just add
• Europe after the printing pressa different
  Europe
• U.S. after the interstate highway systema
  different U.S.
• U.S. Politics after TVa different politics
• Most significant radicals have been capitalists
• Bell, Edison, Ford, Carnegie, Goldwyn killed the
  19th century
• Most significant educational reformers have been
  capitalists
• Chauncey and the ETS transformed American
  education.
• Most significant political reformers have been
  capitalists
• Sarnoff and the many TV executives who
  transformed politics into entertainment
• What is Postmans conclusion?

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5. Technology tends to become mythic

• Mythic
• Any human invention masquerading as a part of the
  natural order
• Examples?
• The phonetic alphabet (circa 3500 B.C.E.)
• The semester system (how long has this been in
  place)
• Numerical grades (Cambridge, 1792, William
  Farish)
• Winner take all voting (what are the some of the
  ways voting is handled in the democracies of
  Western Europe?
• Once a technology becomes mythic, it becomes
  dangerous. Why?