What A 1998 Article About Technology Means in 2018

20-years ago, author and cultural critic Neil Postman gave a talked titled "“Five Things We Need to Know About Technological Change". The author, who has since passed away, posited five big ideas about technological change, which stand up perhaps even better today, with the cultural discussions around Social Media, Fake News, Free Speech, Deplatforming (and whether it's a form of real or quasi censorship), Open Access (especially in the Sciences), and other matters related to or at least involving the Internet and the various online service and platform owners.

These ideas were: 1) “All technological change is a trade-off.” 2) “The advantages and disadvantages of a new technology are never distributed evenly.” 3) "Embedded in every technology there is a powerful idea, sometimes two or three powerful ideas. These ideas are often hidden from our view because they are of a somewhat abstract nature." 4) “Technological change is not additive; it is ecological.” 5) “When a technology becomes mythic, it is always dangerous because it is then accepted as it is, and is therefore not easily susceptible to modification or control.”

We have seen all of these ideas fulfilled, on the sort of scale that is also what makes the Internet so great in other ways, in the decades since Postman first presented them, as the article linked below describes, along with relevant examples like Smartphones, Facebook, and Uber.

You can also read the original talk in pdf format at the following link: http://web.cs.ucdavis.edu/~rogaway/classes/188/materials/postman.pdf

The answer to the titular question is, of course, one which remains to be answered, but it can only benefit us to give serious consideration to the implication of these ideas, and how we might address their negative aspects.

#SocialMedia #FakeNews #Disruption