Posted on

DTC Homework #9

“And lest we forget, text itself is an invention, a technology. We treat it, however, as a base-level given in thinking about the essence of a message or a piece of communication.” – Maria Popova

In this quote Maria Popova points out that in our ever-changing world of technology, we forget that the things we have grown so used to were once brand new. People hold literature on such higher standings than modern technology even though what they think to be superior was once something to be wary of. When thought of in this way Twitter should really be thought of as nothing less than any other form of writing. Just as writing once became an essential part of communication (letters, emails, texts, etc.) Twitter could very well be headed the same direction. Everyone learns how to write in school and they use those skills learned to develop ideas into larger pieces of texts like essays. However, now people aren’t spending the majority of their time reading long winded articles or even blog posts. Being able to condense information into 280 characters is a valuable skill to have. People get their news and entertainment from the same source now, and in the same format. It’s not crazy to think that eventually kids will be taught how to cram the most information into a tweet, or how to make a cohesive thread. Writing changes with the times, and as we continue to make new ways to communicate it will have to adapt. Plays used to be written to last all day and provide a longer entertainment, but now that we have books and movies and the internet, no one’s focus has to be on one thing for any longer than they want it to be. While new inventions continue to draw our attention thinner, the normalcy of writing changing all together seems like a plausible solution to keep people consuming information.

Posted on

DTC: “What is Technology” Blog Post

The most impactful line, in my opinion, from “What is Technology” by Stephen J. Kline was, “However, we humans are the only species that purposefully makes innovations in our sociotechnical systems in order to (hopefully) improve their functioning.” The idea that we as humans create new technologies for the purpose of ease and a better everyday life doesn’t agree with me. So often new tech designed for good has turned on humanity as a whole and the argument could be made that without these emerging technologies we would all be better off. No one would argue that life in the 21st century is vastly more efficient than it was even 50 years ago, but what we’ve traded for that efficiency is personal privacy and safety. Kline uses the example of the atom bomb as a manufactured article of technology designed to oppress and protect. Consequently, new technologies are very easily duplicated and within a matter of years there were enough nuclear grade weapons to wipe out the entire species, let alone all species. In this case technology wasn’t necessarily created with the best intentions and definitely did not grow into a better situation. Less obvious, but just as impactful, technologies such as those in medicine. New drugs have cured diseases and prevented plagues, but on the other end of that highly addictive drugs like heroin and methamphetamine were once regulated and distributed by pharmaceutical companies. Today the epidemic of addiction is a very real problem that quite possibly would not have gained as much speed without as much push for new and better technologies. On a less life threatening, but a more widespread note, technology in the form of new forms of communication and the existence of the internet remove a lot of previously assumed privacy. Susceptibility to hacking and selling if data to government agencies tracking worrisome search history is a new and seemingly impossible problem to fix. In this day and age are enough technologies being created for and staying good?