Chapter 11: The Loving Resistance Fighter

In Chapter 11, Postman proposed some form of a solution to the many problems he has discussed throughout the book, manly focusing on education though. Postman believes one way to overcome technology is through education, however it is broken. Education is ineffective because it is broken; there is no unifying story or theme, just different subject that are taught. Education needs to be organized around a theme; maybe this is where “tech” school will become important in the future. Modern education “has no moral, social or intellectual center” (186). Education should “stress history, the scientific mode of thinking, the disciplined use of language and a wide-ranging knowledge of the arts and religion (189).
We need to understand the technology does not, cannot, and never will rule our lives. Postman states, "You must try to be a loving resistance fighter . . . By 'loving' I mean that, in spite of the confusion, errors, and stupidities you see around you, you must always keep close to your heart the narratives and symbols that once made the United States the hope of the world and that may yet have enough vitality to do so again. . .” (182). “A resistance fighter understands that technology must never be accepted as part of the natural order of things, that every technology--from an IQ test to an automobile to a television set to a computer--is a product of a particular economic and political context and carries with it a program, an agenda, and a philosophy that may or may not be life-enhancing and that therefore require scrutiny, criticism, and control.” (184-185).
Is technology truly life-enhancing in the long run?

Chapter 10: The Great Symbol Drain

In Chapter 10, Postman argues the in the United States education is just another institution that prepared students to be good works of the technopoly era; it is an instrument of economic policy. He also argue there is a “symbol drain”, another problem of information overload, caused by the over exposure to images and symbols being used in the media and in sales ads. We see the same thing over and over and it is starting to lose its effectiveness. Previously symbols were used to connect, support, and add effect to something; today they are just something we see, they have lost their value to emphasize progress, efficiency, and technical capability. Postman said, “no culture can flourish without narratives of transcendent origin and power” (172). Postman also stated that the point of business is to make the consumer feel valuable, not make products of value, something he calls “pseudo-therapy”. I big question from this chapter is, where is education going? We are so caught up in everything else and the things we use and the results that come out of our classrooms, I don’t think we are doing our students any justice.

Chapter 9: Scientism

In Chapter 9, Postman describes the information overload with a different twist, scientology. Scientism is the “illusory belief that some standardized set of procedures called ‘science’ can provide us with an unimpeachable source of moral authority” (162). We have placed too much faith in science to answer every question, we no longer trust historical facts, but long for an illusion of “fell-good” behavior (169-160). The overload and shifted trust is making humans incapable to make-sense of what we should do next. We believe that everything must be proven by science before we can believe. Postman believes society as blurred the definition of what science is and has made it into one of the pillars of Technopoly, but he does not believe the natural science and social science are of the same discipline, and I agree with him. Postman defines natural science as “the quest to find the immutable and universal laws that govern the process of nature.” Social science applies the methods of natural science to the study of human behavior and thus generates “specific principles by which to organize society on a rational and humane basis”. These studies are interesting, but they will not give us concrete answer to the questions we ask. Postman does not believe the social science is a science at all, just because this discipline has the word science in its name does not mean it is a science and does not give it authority other sciences have. I also believe science, give us answers to our questions, not meaning to our lives, but is this all we are asking it to do?

Chapter 8: Invisible Technologies

In Chapter 8, Postman once again surprised me by making me realize something as simple as the number zero could be classified as a technique or technology. And it is also surprising the amount of importance the number zero has on our daily lives. We use the number zero for everything, statistics, polling, IQ tests, percentages, calculating grades in school, award scholarships, entrance exams for colleges, beauty pageants, but we have become accustom to assigning a number value to everything. Numbers are also used as the basis in technology; they have their own set of rules and procedures to regulate their behavior and performance. Numbers are technology disguised as techniques. So, how do we teach our students t use technology and not let is consume their lives?

Chapter 7: The Ideology of Machines: Computer Technology

In Chapter 7, Postman discusses in-depth the significances of letting computers have too much power. There are scary thoughts that a movie such as Transformers or the Matrix may be where we are heading if we continue to let technology run our lives. There are other interesting gadgets like the iBook or the Kindle that are advancing technology, but in a saver way. However, Postman is not saying our problem is with technology, but with the power we give technology and the power we give it over our lives. Friday is a good example where “technology” did not work for me. Thursday night I was setting up my lesson plans for Friday and I could not get logged into my blog to post my bell work, so I gave up. I did not feel good, the tech guy was busy and I wanted to go home, so I printed out a Sudoku puzzle for them to do instead. Here is a perfect example of shifting the blame, the computer didn’t work and I wanted to go home, so I found something else for them to do. It is not the computers fault technology did not work. I probably did something wrong and I need to take responsibility for it. This is one thing computers will never be able to do, make decisions for themselves, think for themselves, they cannot solve problems, these are all still things that humans have to do and computers are just doing what the human is telling it to do. Postman says “artificial intelligence does not and cannot lead to a meaning-making, understanding, and felling creature, which is what a human being is” (113). We need to take responsibility for the computers we are running and not letting them run our lives, but what are we losing by using computers in our daily lives?

Chapter 6: The Ideology of Machines: Medical Technology

In Chapter 6, Postman describes how technology has redefined culture, emphasizing on medical practices. Postman describes American medicine as being dominated by technology, “the weapon with which disease and illness would be vanquished” (97). And I know the relationship between and doctor and a patient is not what it once was, today the relationship is focused on the disease, not the patient, and whatever can be done to cure the disease, “… doctors do not merely use technologies but are used by them” (105). However, the advantage of technology in medicine is a process, these leaps and bounds did not happen overnight, they have taken time. Because of doctors increasing reliance on technology in medicine, doctors expect more out of the machines and put less enfaces on listening to the patient. I believe this has caused doctors to make more mistakes and prescribe countless prescriptions that are unnecessary and have outrageous side-effects, some of which I have experienced first-hand and it took countless phone call and complaint to get my medication changed. These machines are changing where doctors are focusing their time; they now focus their time on the disease and not the patient. Doctors do not make friendly house calls like they used too.
For the last ten day I have had a migraine that has not broken. I called my doctors nurse three times to discuss this particular headache and the side effects of another medication I am on. The first phone calls nothing happened. During second phone call the put me on some kind of steroid to hopefully break the cycle of this particular migraine. When I went to the pharmacy to pick-up the steroid they told me a side effect was insomnia. A side effect of the first medication is that I can’t sleep and know they want to put me on a drug that causes insomnia! And finally during the third phone call they took me off the first drug and are switching me to a different drug. When I made the first phone call I told the nurse I would be in Sioux Fall, South Dakota on Friday for my MRI and I really wanted to see my specialist, he did not want to see me until he had the results of the MRI and being a teacher, I will not be able to make it make to Sioux Falls until October 29. I really wish my doctor would listen to all the concerns I have about the medication he has put me on, because I am ready to take myself off of everything! Does my doctor have my best interests or the diseases best interest in mind when he is making these decisions?

Chapter 5: The Broken Defenses

In Chapter 5, Postman describes to the reader the control Technopoly has on our lives and the effects of the overload of information has had played on downfall of the importance of religion today. He explains there are three technical methods used to control information in a Technopoly: 1) Bureaucracy, efficiency with no responsibility; 2) Expertise, who claim next to godliness and have no true technical solutions, 3) Technical Machinery, how we generate answers to problems. Technology has redefined the society we live in today because of this information overload. In the past we had social institutions to control the information that was available. But as technology has grown, as well as access, these social institutes, like the church, have lost their power. In the past religion was able to unify the community, weight the options and limit the distractions to its followers, today they lay defenses because of the information overload.
Recently there has been a huge push in the school I teach in to include more technology on a daily basis. Next year we would like to become a one-to-one school, so to prepare for that we are trying to use technology as much as possible, but if there is not a purpose or a benefit to technology in the classroom are we ready to go one-to-one? Are our students ready to go one-to-one to they understand enough about the basics about computer and how to troubleshoot on their own or will teachers to bogged down helping students fix their computer all time. Will students take better care of their computer if it this there to bring home and possible buy after high school. Are we giving our students too much access to information without enough supervision?