A term coined by Neil Postman technopoly can be defined as [society's] submission of all forms of cultural life to the power of technique and technology. Evidence of technopoly is nomophobia, which is a fear of being without a phone/cell phone service.
I remember being a kid when there were no cell phones. I had a pager, which at that time was the most modern technology. With this pager, I was only slightly connected to the world at all times. I could receive a page, but if I were without a telephone then I could not return the page.
Nowadays, this is not the case. We are constantly connected to the world via cell phones, smart phones, computer devices (iPad, tablet, netbook), and the one and only World Wide Web. Some may argue that is a good thing that benefits society. However, I am not one of those people. The technology overload of the 21st century includes a few concerns, especially if you include the word "modernity" in the discussion.
First, the social aspects of life or being ignored or even becoming obsolete, because of the Web and how we communicate to each other. Face-to-face human interactive is a thing of the past, because with the Web and mobile devices we, as society, are able to communicate (or ignore communication) at our earliest convenience. Second, we are now beginning to filter our daily news. This could mean a variety of things such as filter in the news that you want to hear/know and filtering out the news you could care less about, or filtering any news you encounter by only reading the headline/the first two lines of a news story. These are only a couple of concerns that come along with a society who is fully devoted to technology and the list goes on.
I once heard a quote from Neil Postman that went something like "we have to become worried when we become pets to our tools." Pet to our tools, eh, Neil? I agree! This new phobia, nomophobia, explains that we have become pets to our tools. My question now is, does society see this as a consequence or a concern?
More information on nomophobia http://vator.tv/news/2012-02-16-irrational-fear-of-being-phoneless-on-the-rise
No comments:
Post a Comment