TECHNOPOLY PDF, EPUB, EBOOK

Postman N | 10 pages | 01 Apr 1993 | Random House USA Inc | 9780679745402 | English | New York, United States Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology by Neil Postman

I hate that Social Science is displacing being well read when discussing opinions of public affair. This is just another rebuke of modern culture written by someone who has refused to adapt to changes. I don't know how to fix this; solve the problem for me. Oh, and if you don't agree with my assertions then you are an idiot. You completely understand exactly what you don't agree with as you're reading it. It's a good example of persuasive writing, but infuriating to anyone who is informed on the subjects that he speaks on as the learned reader can spot his "white lies" deliberate or born of ignorance, I'm not sure , incorrect assertions, and use of logical fallacies. View all 3 comments. Sep 23, Kris rated it really liked it Shelves: read-write-think , audiobooks. Very direct and short. I don't agree with everything he says, but it's worth a read as he has some interesting ideas. It's about the history of technology and its influence on our Western culture: how we think about tools and how we train our brains to work. He talks about the difference between learning information and facts knowledge vs. Most of all, he urges us to start critically analyzing our interaction with technology Very direct and short. Most of all, he urges us to start critically analyzing our interaction with technology something that still astounds me people don't do. He references ideas from The Closing of the American Mind. Some of his ideas reminded me of Lewis's "men without chests" from The Abolition of Man. I still want to read Postman's The Disappearance of Childhood. Jan 13, Paul Ataua rated it liked it. Despite being published in and therefore dealing with technology well before the internet revolution, many of the ideas are very relevant in our world today. Some really thought provoking points, like asking how important the invention of the printing press was to the coming of the Lutheran reformation. The central hypothesis that there are good and bad effects to every new technological advance needs to be put forward, but the book tends to repeat that point so many times and never really Despite being published in and therefore dealing with technology well before the internet revolution, many of the ideas are very relevant in our world today. The central hypothesis that there are good and bad effects to every new technological advance needs to be put forward, but the book tends to repeat that point so many times and never really goes deeper than that. May 28, Beth Barnett rated it really liked it. Another book about the danger of trusting too fully in technology. Postman's argument encourages us to keep those low-tech ideas and solutions that still work better and view technology with reason, looking for that which truly benefits us as humans, rather than embracing technology that degrades us. For similar writing, read Wendell Berry also. Jul 19, Trevor Atwood added it. It is without a moral center. It puts in its place efficiency, interest, and economic advance. It promises heaven on earth through the conveniences of technological progress. It casts aside all traditional narratives and symbols that suggest stability and orderliness, and tells, instead, of a life of skills, technical expertise, and the ecstasy of consumption. I loved his address of statistics in particular. Did you hear about the statistician that drowned crossing the stream that was an average of 4. Then follow up with this one. Aug 25, Matthew Rogers rated it it was amazing. This book will be relevant forever. Dec 31, Alex Stroshine rated it it was amazing Shelves: for-regent , sociocultural. For instance, Technopoly has created new specialists and experts who are able to wield and control technology and thus gain power, but to the detriment of other specialists who have been rendered obsolete by technology p. Postman also laments how we have come to suffer from information overload, echoing criticisms he made in Amusing Ourselves to Death in which he bemoaned how we are flooded with useless information that has little impact on our daily lives p. In chapter five the author discusses the role of institutions and how they help to separate worthy information from useless data; for instance, colleges prevent pseudoscience from being considered academic p. Postman notes that culture privileges statistical, quantifiable data, but not all knowledge can be measured purely by statistics. While some churches deliberately practice communion rarely usually these churches are suspicious of sacraments in general , can it be said that monthly communion is more significant than weekly communion? Jun 20, Brittany Horton rated it it was amazing Shelves: favorites. Anyone who opens my copy of Technopoly will see how much I enjoyed reading it. It is now filled with writing, underlining, stars, post-it notes and highlighter marks. This is my second book by Postman and I am definitely a huge fan of his theories. First of all, this is by no means anti-technology book. Postman gives a mostly unbiased opinion on the state of the technology culture today the Technopoly and how we as a society can begin to integrate technology into our classrooms without it fi Anyone who opens my copy of Technopoly will see how much I enjoyed reading it. Postman gives a mostly unbiased opinion on the state of the technology culture today the Technopoly and how we as a society can begin to integrate technology into our classrooms without it first swallowing education whole- but that's only the last chapter. Most of the book Postman spends discussing the history of the technological revolution, which started long before my generation. He discusses and explains how one generations' revolutionary invention has landed us here; now. He brings in an abundance of rich resources and ideas for the reader to consider. I appreciated Postman's emphasis on history in this book, he hardly goes into anything without first discussing the written past of whatever he is speaking about. This book helped me connect so many pieces of history together to see the bigger picture unfold. I really loved reading this and found most of the chapters fascinating- but reader beware- this is by no means a leisure read. Although fascinating- it will require your full attention. As previously stated I highlighted and saved many ideas, thoughts, and theories from this book but I especially loved this quote from the last chapter, "To remain ignorant of things that happened before you were born is to remain a child. Jan 06, Lucsly rated it it was amazing. Despite being written in , this book offers a view of the influence of technology on our lives that is as relevant as ever, if not more so in this age of government espionage on all our communications, of corporations greedily soaking up the personal information we happily share on social networking sites, of tech companies believing that their latest smart phone will improve our lives. To be sure, the author the cultural critic Neil Postman is not a Luddite: he does not deny the usefulness Despite being written in , this book offers a view of the influence of technology on our lives that is as relevant as ever, if not more so in this age of government espionage on all our communications, of corporations greedily soaking up the personal information we happily share on social networking sites, of tech companies believing that their latest smart phone will improve our lives. To be sure, the author the cultural critic Neil Postman is not a Luddite: he does not deny the usefulness of technology, but he warns against placing them central in our lives, in believing in them without any reflection on them. He offers a dissenting voice in the chorus of people worshiping technology. Even better, he remains nuanced and subtle in all of his arguments - a trait that I admire and rarely see in other writings about media and technology. This could be perhaps why he seems to be all but forgotten in the fields of scholarly research into media and its effects: in my experience, those scholars automatically see media and technology seen an improvement of our lives and an enrichment of our culture. He presents an excellent reminder to keep thinking and analyzing who we are, how we want to use our technology and if we want to let it influence us or not. Aug 16, Daniel Nelms rated it it was amazing Shelves: cultural-issues-apologetics. After reading this book, your eyes will be opened as to how much our lives are governed, defined and shaped by technology. It is indeed a tyranny of technology, a technopoly. Answer: there is a cause and here is the effect. Answer: there is a measurable cause and effect, etc. This is a must read. Apr 04, Murtaza rated it liked it. To be honest many of the ideas he espoused here felt somewhat familiar to me. In fairness, this book was written decades ago and so his ideas have had a long time to filter out. I wonder what he would make of the Technopoly given that this book was written even before the Internet was invented. He correctly notes "Amusing Ourselves to Death" by Neil Postman is one of my favorite books, and Technopoly offers some of the same kind of effective cultural criticism that made that one such a classic. He correctly notes that an absence of other solid cultural values degraded as they have been by other philosophical and scientific developments has left many of us completely unable to contextualize technology into our own lives. Instead, technology ends up dictating the terms and uses us for its own purposes. Unlike tools which we developed for a purpose, our development of technology goes on autopilot and we resign ourselves to going wherever we may with it. All in all this is a solid and necessary need to understand the age we live in. My own somewhat tepid review reflects the familiarity of many of his arguments to me. Jul 18, Dan rated it it was ok Recommends it for: luddites, alll manner of loud mouthed anti-technology malcontents. This book is about how technology affects our society and culture. Specifically, this book is about how Technology negatively affects our society and culture. Postman is very one sided and hardly even pays lip service to any contradictory interpretations than his own. I read this book very quickly, in one sitting, finishing the book in an afternoon. I don't remember his whole argument. However, when I finished I remember being dissatisfied with Postman's arguments, thinking he was an idiot, think This book is about how technology affects our society and culture. However, when I finished I remember being dissatisfied with Postman's arguments, thinking he was an idiot, thinking the book was well written, and being damn proud of myself for reading the book in one sitting. Neil Postman gets two stars for good writing, he would have had more, except that I disagree with his thesis and he does not argue it particularly well. May 11, Mehrsa rated it it was amazing. I picked up this book immediately after I finished Postman's other book, amusing ourselves to death and while I think there is some overlap, I think both books are so well-written and so precise in their identification of the challenges of technology. I kept thinking "he doesn't even know about Google and Facebook yet! It's only gotten worse since the book was written. Postman is either a crank or a prophet I picked up this book immediately after I finished Postman's other book, amusing ourselves to death and while I think there is some overlap, I think both books are so well-written and so precise in their identification of the challenges of technology. Postman is either a crank or a prophet of our time and I lean toward the latter. Jun 04, Rob rated it it was amazing. This is my favorite Postman book so far. It was thought provoking to the point that it makes me question the use of the 5 star system on this site. I liked the scope of this book more than that of Amusing Ourselves To Death. There was more emphasis on our cultural ideologies and less on imagined historical ideals. Mar 07, Daniel Martinez rated it it was amazing. This book was incredibly insightful into the American concession of all things to technology and its advances. He also ends practically with a hopeful future for our society and its relationship with technology. May 29, Azzam To'meh rated it it was amazing. A great book which analyzes both philosphically and quantifiably the effect of the media, and technology in general, on our lifestyles. It examines the technologies which we do not even notice, and look at how those tools in themselves affect the information ecology within which we live. Feb 28, Douglas Wilson rated it it was amazing Shelves: culture-studies. Aug 14, David Sasaki rated it it was amazing Shelves: kindle. One of the most influential books about technology, narrative, and education that I have read. View all 4 comments. Dec 24, Stephen Case rated it really liked it. Being a social critic must be a lonely job. No one wants to hear what he says, I imagine, besides those already disillusioned with the system. For those though who have a vague sense that something somewhere has gone wrong but lack the words to articular exactly what, the social critic serves an essential function. He helps diagnose the problem. Neil Postman did this in his work Amusing Ourselves to Death , which I read years ago, when he talked about the way that television has shaped public dia Being a social critic must be a lonely job. Neil Postman did this in his work Amusing Ourselves to Death , which I read years ago, when he talked about the way that television has shaped public dialogue. One of the main themes in that book is that the medium is never neutral-- it shapes the message and the type of dialogue that can be conducted. Whereas print allows a certain level of dialogue and reflection, the medium of television news-- depending as it does on sensationalism and catering to the limited attention span of viewers, upon which their marketing model is sustained-- cannot. In this book, Technopoly , Postman takes his idea of the impossibility of a neutral medium deeper with his critique of the assumptions that underlie our technological world. Postman wants to chart the transition from societies in which tools are used by humans a tool-using society to a society in which those tools bring about radical social changes what Postman calls a technocracy and ultimately to the society we have today, one in which we no longer shape tools for ourselves but in which we shape ourselves for our tools a Technopoly. There are a lot of generalizations at play here, as one would expect in a three-chapter survey of the history of technology. Postman shows how the technology of writing transformed society and created an abundance of information that required institutions to manage. Schools and universities, for instance, arose in large part to help sort, organize, evaluate, and manage the new information created by the technology of printing. In the past century, Postman argues, technologies increasing the amount and immediacy of information-- the telegraph, telephone, television, and finally computer-- have proliferated much faster than the capacity of the institutions that exist to manage that information. Postman wants to show the unperceived and unquestioned ways technology shapes thought. Against those who believe technological progress is always desired and inevitable, Postman argues technology is not value-neutral. It carries with it a host of assumptions that fundamentally change the way humans interact with each other and their environment and conceive of the natural and social world. He provides specific examples from the field of medical and computer technology. The primary problem, he says, is the familiar adage that to a man with a hammer everything looks like a nail. Machines depend for their functioning upon the reduction of things to uniformity, automated processes, and problems of efficiency. The usurpation of culture by technology, Postman argues, takes place when this becomes the lens through which all human interactions are viewed. Machines predispose us to see social interactions in these reductionist, efficiency-driven terms. In these cases, Postman says, we are no longer simply using our machines; they are shaping the way that we view the world. His big examples here are the practices of standardized testing, questionnaires, polling, and the tools of social scientists-- basically the perceived ability to objectively quantify specific traits. The results of all this, Postman says, is that our culture places an inordinate faith in applying the methods of natural science-- quantification, empirical observation, testing-- to places where they never belonged in the first place, the realm of human interaction and society. Postman has a long screed against social scientists, who he believes misuse the tools of scientific practice and have contributed nothing to the actual understanding of the human mind or human interactions. I find this generalization to be a bit dangerous, especially the division he makes between studying the processes of nature allowable via the scientific method and human practices not allowable, because humans are too complex. What would Postman make of the burgeoning field of neuroscience, for instance, which combines aspects of the social sciences with biology and psychology? The divisions here are, I think, more tenuous than Postman allows. As a critique of a society that unquestioningly embraces technology and all the reductionist assumptions it entails, this book-- published over twenty years ago-- still seems incredibly relevant. Deeper than that though, Postman believes technology shapes the way we view the world. They cause us to re-conceptualize our problems in mechanistic terms, even when this is inappropriate. In some cases we start treating computers like people, and in many cases we start treating people like computers. Postman says that the only place the problems of Technolopy can be address are in the schools which are themselves a form of technology. The key, Postman claims, to helping people see the problematic assumptions of Technopoly is teaching the history of every discipline, especially the history and philosophy of science. As much as I agree with the call to historicizing knowledge and Postman is right-- this is the only way for knowledge to become more than a consumer product , the grand narrative of human progress that Postman thinks teaching should be structured around smacks of the very technological determinism that he is trying to avoid. Most of society focuses on what we gain with technology; Postman wants to make us consider what we lose, but more than that he wants to warn against the standards of Technopoly-- efficiency, information, standardization, immediacy-- becoming the standards of culture. This is a warning that is just as poignant now, if not more so, than it was when the book was first written. Oct 11, Suleiman Arabiat rated it it was amazing. A very fitting conclusion to Neil Postman's socio-critique books, having read The Disappearance of Childhood, Amusing Ourselves to Death, and the End of Education, I found Technopoly to be a culmination of this scholar's works in tackling the technology-influenced rapid change of our societies. Technopoly is a new term that the author is proposing as a descriptive term for the state we are in, a description that is as relevant today - if not more - as it was back in when the book was publish A very fitting conclusion to Neil Postman's socio-critique books, having read The Disappearance of Childhood, Amusing Ourselves to Death, and the End of Education, I found Technopoly to be a culmination of this scholar's works in tackling the technology-influenced rapid change of our societies. Technopoly is a new term that the author is proposing as a descriptive term for the state we are in, a description that is as relevant today - if not more - as it was back in when the book was published. It describes a state where technology overtakes all aspects of life, diminishing the questions of purpose and utility and raising the importance of efficiency and processes. A state where technology is a virtue in of its own, and technological advancement is an objective sought irrespective of its objective. Technopoly is another manifestation of what Marshal McLuhan have coined "The Medium becomes the Message", which the author cites on several occasions as well. The book's progression, as all of Postman's works, is smooth and well organized, it starts with identifying the problem, presenting the premises, defining the theme and the terms, and then critiquing each of the offshoots of the presented issue, technology as a monopoly on life in this book, with a concise progression. The offshoots of Technopoly he tackles here are the centralization of our culture around the computer, the medical technologies' impact on the practice of the essential-for-survival craft of medicine, the pseudo-scientism of the "social scientists", the irreverence and disappearance of symbols, and finally a brief manifesto on how to bring balance to this chaotic attack by technology. A great book, worth reading, citing, and building upon. Feb 18, Matthew rated it really liked it Shelves: social-science , owned-physical. This was a timely read for me. Many of Postman's warnings to society served as chilling wakeup calls to me. He warns against viewing efficiency as the highest good of life. I have to admit that I have accepted that lie into many areas of my life where it has no right to be. He warns against allowing the metaphor of technology absorb one's entire consciousness. Too often, I fall into that trap as well. He warns against taking the social "sciences" at their word, because their subject does not len This was a timely read for me. He warns against taking the social "sciences" at their word, because their subject does not lend itself to discovery of enduring truth as the subjects of the physical sciences do. In this and other areas, Postman's words reminded me of many things I have conveniently forgotten over the years as I've tried to make sense of the world and figure out what my place in it will be. This is a dated book though, and the conclusion is far from satisfactory. As far as I could tell, Postman's solution to the problem of a "technopoly" is to establish a humanist education system. That is great--except that is what we have been doing, and we are still in this mess. Postman comments on the tendency of social critics to find fault in their cultures but fail to provide solutions. In this case, I think that is definitely true. His comments about the state our culture is in provide a much-needed perspective, and I appreciate this book for that reason. Apr 18, Annelie rated it it was amazing Shelves: required-reading. In a world where the use of the computer and the smartphone is taken for granted, Postman's Technopoly is a necessary meditation on the ways in which our society's contemporary worship of science and information has ravaged the symbols upon which it was once based. Postman calls for us to reexamine our history, our symbols, and what societies of the past relied on for transcendence; he urges us to question the imperatives of efficiency and precision that undermine the complex and necessary retel In a world where the use of the computer and the smartphone is taken for granted, Postman's Technopoly is a necessary meditation on the ways in which our society's contemporary worship of science and information has ravaged the symbols upon which it was once based. Postman calls for us to reexamine our history, our symbols, and what societies of the past relied on for transcendence; he urges us to question the imperatives of efficiency and precision that undermine the complex and necessary retellings by writers, pyschologists, and philosophers of whom we are; and he wants to scrutinize how technology has rendered all of us subservient to the ideologies it declares. This is mandatory reading for anyone who wants to be literate on our times. I can't recommend it highly enough and not simply because Postman is not only incredibly intelligent, but incredibly funny. There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Readers also enjoyed. About Neil Postman. Neil Postman. Neil Postman , an important American educator, media theorist and cultural critic was probably best known for his popular book, Amusing Ourselves to Death. For more than four decades he was associated with New York University, where he created and led the Media Ecology program. He is the author of more than thirty significant books on education, media criticism, and cultural change including T e Neil Postman , an important American educator, media theorist and cultural critic was probably best known for his popular book, Amusing Ourselves to Death. He is the author of more than thirty significant books on education, media criticism, and cultural change including T eaching as a Subversive Activity, The Disappearance of Childhood, Technopoly , and Building a Bridge to the Eighteenth Century. Amusing Ourselves to Death , a historical narrative which warns of a decline in the ability of our mass communications media to share serious ideas. Since television images replace the written word, Postman argues that television confounds serious issues by demeaning and undermining political discourse and by turning real, complex issues into superficial images, less about ideas and thoughts and more about entertainment. He also argues that television is not an effective way of providing education, as it provides only top-down information transfer, rather than the interaction that he believes is necessary to maximize learning. He refers to the relationship between information and human response as the Information-action ratio. Books by Neil Postman. Escape the Present with These 24 Historical Romances. You know the saying: There's no time like the present Douglas Rushkoff. Deep Simplicity. Geoffrey West. Anil Ananthaswamy. George Dyson. Leonard Mlodinow. The Intellectual Devotional. David S. Kidder and Noah D. The Idea Factory. How to Create a Mind. The Ultimate History of Video Games. Steven L. The Ultimate Book of Useless Information. The Journey of Man. Spencer Wells. The Hunt for Vulcan. Thomas Levenson. John Kuprenas and Matthew Frederick. James Gleick. You Are Not a Gadget. Jaron Lanier. The Age of Empathy. Frans de Waal. You May Also Like. Tom Vanderbilt. Through Two Doors at Once. Precarity Lab. Self Comes to Mind. Antonio Damasio. Life on the Edge. The Knowledge Illusion. Philip Fernbach and Steven Sloman. Physical Intelligence. Scott Grafton. Technopoly by Neil Postman :: A Book Review by Scott London

Books upon books have been Born in Brooklyn, New York, and educated at the State University of New York and Columbia University, Neil Postman is a communications theorist, educator, and writer who has been deeply involved with the issue of the impact of the media and advanced communications technology on American culture. In his many books, Postman has strongly opposed the idea that technology will "save" humanity. In fact, he has focused on the negative ways in which television and computers alter social behavior. In his book Technopoly, Postman argues that the uncontrolled growth of technology destroys humanity by creating a culture with no moral structure. Thus, technology can be a dangerous enemy as well as a good friend. Postman, who is married and has three children, currently is a professor of media ecology at New York University and editor of Et Cetera, the journal of general semantics. In addition to his books, he has contributed to various magazines and periodicals, including Atlantic and The Nation. He has also appeared on the television program Sunrise Semester. The Journey of Man. Spencer Wells. The Hunt for Vulcan. Thomas Levenson. John Kuprenas and Matthew Frederick. James Gleick. You Are Not a Gadget. Jaron Lanier. The Age of Empathy. Frans de Waal. You May Also Like. Tom Vanderbilt. Through Two Doors at Once. Precarity Lab. Self Comes to Mind. Antonio Damasio. Life on the Edge. The Knowledge Illusion. Philip Fernbach and Steven Sloman. Physical Intelligence. Scott Grafton. The Beginning of Infinity. David Deutsch. Distrust That Particular Flavor. William Gibson. Related Articles. Looking for More Great Reads? Download Hi Res. LitFlash The eBooks you want at the lowest prices. Read it Forward Read it first. Pass it on! Stay in Touch Sign up. We are experiencing technical difficulties. Please try again later. Become a Member Start earning points for buying books! Technopoly - Wikipedia

It is characterised by a surplus of information generated by technology, which technological tools are in turn employed to cope with, in order to provide direction and purpose for society and individuals. Postman considers technopoly to be the most recent of three kinds of cultures distinguished by shifts in their attitude towards technology — tool-using cultures, technocracies, and technopolies. Each, he says, is produced by the emergence of new technologies that "compete with old ones…mostly for dominance of their worldviews". According to Postman, a tool-using culture employs technologies only to solve physical problems, as spears, cooking utensils, and water mills do, and to "serve the symbolic world" of religion , art , politics and tradition , as tools used to construct cathedrals do. In a technocracy, rather than existing in harmony with a theocratic world-view, tools are central to the "thought-world" of the culture. Postman claims that tools "attack culture…[and] bid to become culture", subordinating existing traditions, politics, and religions. Postman cites the example of the telescope destroying the Judeo-Christian belief that the Earth is the centre of the solar system , bringing about a "collapse…of the moral centre of gravity in the West". Postman characterises a technocracy as compelled by the "impulse to invent", [6] an ideology first advocated by Francis Bacon in the early 17th Century. However, a technocratic society remains loosely controlled by social and religious traditions, he clarifies. For instance, he states that the United States remained bound to notions of "holy men and sin, grandmothers and families, regional loyalties and two-thousand-year-old traditions" at the time of its founding. Postman defines technopoly as a "totalitarian technocracy", which demands the "submission of all forms of cultural life to the sovereignty of technique and technology". Thus, it reduces human life to finding meaning in machines and technique. This is exemplified, in Postman's view, by the computer, the "quintessential, incomparable, near-perfect" technology for a technopoly. It establishes sovereignty over all areas of human experience based on the claim that it "'thinks' better than we can". A technopoly is founded on the belief that technique is superior to lax, ambiguous and complex human thinking and judgement, in keeping with one of Frederick W. It also relies upon the "elevation of information to a metaphysical status: information as both the means and end of human creativity". The idea of progress is overcome by the goal of obtaining information for its own sake. New technologies transform those who can create and use them into an "elite group", a knowledge monopoly , which is granted "undeserved authority and prestige by those who have no such competence". Subsequently, Postman claims, those outside of this monopoly are led to believe in the false "wisdom" offered by the new technology, which has little relevance to the average person. Telegraphy and photography , he states, redefined information from something that sought out to solve particular problems to a commodity that is potentially irrelevant to the receiver. Thus, in technopoly, "information appears indiscriminately, directed at no one in particular, in enormous volume at high speeds, and disconnected from theory, meaning, or purpose". In the U. A technopoly also trivialises significant cultural and religious symbols through their endless reproduction. Postman's argument stems from the premise that the uses of a technology are determined by its characteristics — "its functions follow from its form". This draws on Marshall McLuhan 's theory that "the medium is the message" because it controls the scale and form of human interaction. According to Tiles and Oberdiek , this pessimistic understanding of pervasive technology renders individuals "strangely impotent". It has also been argued [33] [34] that technologies are shaped by social factors more so than by their inherent properties. Star suggests that Postman neglects to account for the "actual development, adaptation and regulation of technology". According to Tiles and Oberdiek, pessimistic accounts of technology overriding culture are based on a particular vision of human values. They emphasise "artistic creativity, intellectual culture, development of interpersonal relations, or religion as being the realms in which human freedom finds expression and in which human fulfilment is to be found". They suggest that technological optimists merely adhere to an alternative worldview that values the "exercise of reason in the service of free will" and the ability of technological developments to "serve human ends". Postman's characterisation of technology as an ideological being has also been criticised. He in fact suggests that new technologies have had remarkably little effect on pre-existing human beliefs. Postman speaks of technological change as "ecological…one significant change generates total change". Star conversely argues that new tools may create new environments, but do "not necessarily extinguish older beliefs or the ability to act pragmatically upon them". He also remarked:. Postman makes a good, if not entirely sufficient argument The next time that you're lost in cyberspace, wondering if all of this information has made us wiser, kinder, happier, pick up Postman's book. Written by an old man who resents the fact that the things he esteemed in his life are no longer as respected as they once were. This book can be summed up with 2 statements: 1. I hate that Science is making it difficult to hold onto my faith, and has enabled the ridicule of fundamentalism. I hate that Social Science is displacing being well read when discussing opinions of public affair. This is just another rebuke of modern culture written by someone who has refused to adapt to changes. I don't know how to fix this; solve the problem for me. Oh, and if you don't agree with my assertions then you are an idiot. You completely understand exactly what you don't agree with as you're reading it. It's a good example of persuasive writing, but infuriating to anyone who is informed on the subjects that he speaks on as the learned reader can spot his "white lies" deliberate or born of ignorance, I'm not sure , incorrect assertions, and use of logical fallacies. View all 3 comments. Sep 23, Kris rated it really liked it Shelves: read-write-think , audiobooks. Very direct and short. I don't agree with everything he says, but it's worth a read as he has some interesting ideas. It's about the history of technology and its influence on our Western culture: how we think about tools and how we train our brains to work. He talks about the difference between learning information and facts knowledge vs. Most of all, he urges us to start critically analyzing our interaction with technology Very direct and short. Most of all, he urges us to start critically analyzing our interaction with technology something that still astounds me people don't do. He references ideas from The Closing of the American Mind. Some of his ideas reminded me of Lewis's "men without chests" from The Abolition of Man. I still want to read Postman's The Disappearance of Childhood. Jan 13, Paul Ataua rated it liked it. Despite being published in and therefore dealing with technology well before the internet revolution, many of the ideas are very relevant in our world today. Some really thought provoking points, like asking how important the invention of the printing press was to the coming of the Lutheran reformation. The central hypothesis that there are good and bad effects to every new technological advance needs to be put forward, but the book tends to repeat that point so many times and never really Despite being published in and therefore dealing with technology well before the internet revolution, many of the ideas are very relevant in our world today. The central hypothesis that there are good and bad effects to every new technological advance needs to be put forward, but the book tends to repeat that point so many times and never really goes deeper than that. May 28, Beth Barnett rated it really liked it. Another book about the danger of trusting too fully in technology. Postman's argument encourages us to keep those low-tech ideas and solutions that still work better and view technology with reason, looking for that which truly benefits us as humans, rather than embracing technology that degrades us. For similar writing, read Wendell Berry also. Jul 19, Trevor Atwood added it. It is without a moral center. It puts in its place efficiency, interest, and economic advance. It promises heaven on earth through the conveniences of technological progress. It casts aside all traditional narratives and symbols that suggest stability and orderliness, and tells, instead, of a life of skills, technical expertise, and the ecstasy of consumption. I loved his address of statistics in particular. Did you hear about the statistician that drowned crossing the stream that was an average of 4. Then follow up with this one. Aug 25, Matthew Rogers rated it it was amazing. This book will be relevant forever. Dec 31, Alex Stroshine rated it it was amazing Shelves: for-regent , sociocultural. For instance, Technopoly has created new specialists and experts who are able to wield and control technology and thus gain power, but to the detriment of other specialists who have been rendered obsolete by technology p. Postman also laments how we have come to suffer from information overload, echoing criticisms he made in Amusing Ourselves to Death in which he bemoaned how we are flooded with useless information that has little impact on our daily lives p. In chapter five the author discusses the role of institutions and how they help to separate worthy information from useless data; for instance, colleges prevent pseudoscience from being considered academic p. Postman notes that culture privileges statistical, quantifiable data, but not all knowledge can be measured purely by statistics. While some churches deliberately practice communion rarely usually these churches are suspicious of sacraments in general , can it be said that monthly communion is more significant than weekly communion? Jun 20, Brittany Horton rated it it was amazing Shelves: favorites. Anyone who opens my copy of Technopoly will see how much I enjoyed reading it. It is now filled with writing, underlining, stars, post-it notes and highlighter marks. This is my second book by Postman and I am definitely a huge fan of his theories. First of all, this is by no means anti-technology book. Postman gives a mostly unbiased opinion on the state of the technology culture today the Technopoly and how we as a society can begin to integrate technology into our classrooms without it fi Anyone who opens my copy of Technopoly will see how much I enjoyed reading it. Postman gives a mostly unbiased opinion on the state of the technology culture today the Technopoly and how we as a society can begin to integrate technology into our classrooms without it first swallowing education whole- but that's only the last chapter. Most of the book Postman spends discussing the history of the technological revolution, which started long before my generation. He discusses and explains how one generations' revolutionary invention has landed us here; now. He brings in an abundance of rich resources and ideas for the reader to consider. I appreciated Postman's emphasis on history in this book, he hardly goes into anything without first discussing the written past of whatever he is speaking about. This book helped me connect so many pieces of history together to see the bigger picture unfold. I really loved reading this and found most of the chapters fascinating- but reader beware- this is by no means a leisure read. Although fascinating- it will require your full attention. As previously stated I highlighted and saved many ideas, thoughts, and theories from this book but I especially loved this quote from the last chapter, "To remain ignorant of things that happened before you were born is to remain a child. Jan 06, Lucsly rated it it was amazing. Despite being written in , this book offers a view of the influence of technology on our lives that is as relevant as ever, if not more so in this age of government espionage on all our communications, of corporations greedily soaking up the personal information we happily share on social networking sites, of tech companies believing that their latest smart phone will improve our lives. To be sure, the author the cultural critic Neil Postman is not a Luddite: he does not deny the usefulness Despite being written in , this book offers a view of the influence of technology on our lives that is as relevant as ever, if not more so in this age of government espionage on all our communications, of corporations greedily soaking up the personal information we happily share on social networking sites, of tech companies believing that their latest smart phone will improve our lives. To be sure, the author the cultural critic Neil Postman is not a Luddite: he does not deny the usefulness of technology, but he warns against placing them central in our lives, in believing in them without any reflection on them. He offers a dissenting voice in the chorus of people worshiping technology. Even better, he remains nuanced and subtle in all of his arguments - a trait that I admire and rarely see in other writings about media and technology. This could be perhaps why he seems to be all but forgotten in the fields of scholarly research into media and its effects: in my experience, those scholars automatically see media and technology seen an improvement of our lives and an enrichment of our culture. He presents an excellent reminder to keep thinking and analyzing who we are, how we want to use our technology and if we want to let it influence us or not. Aug 16, Daniel Nelms rated it it was amazing Shelves: cultural-issues-apologetics. After reading this book, your eyes will be opened as to how much our lives are governed, defined and shaped by technology. It is indeed a tyranny of technology, a technopoly. Answer: there is a cause and here is the effect. Answer: there is a measurable cause and effect, etc. This is a must read. Apr 04, Murtaza rated it liked it. To be honest many of the ideas he espoused here felt somewhat familiar to me. In fairness, this book was written decades ago and so his ideas have had a long time to filter out. I wonder what he would make of the Technopoly given that this book was written even before the Internet was invented. He correctly notes "Amusing Ourselves to Death" by Neil Postman is one of my favorite books, and Technopoly offers some of the same kind of effective cultural criticism that made that one such a classic. He correctly notes that an absence of other solid cultural values degraded as they have been by other philosophical and scientific developments has left many of us completely unable to contextualize technology into our own lives. Instead, technology ends up dictating the terms and uses us for its own purposes. Unlike tools which we developed for a purpose, our development of technology goes on autopilot and we resign ourselves to going wherever we may with it. All in all this is a solid and necessary need to understand the age we live in. My own somewhat tepid review reflects the familiarity of many of his arguments to me. Jul 18, Dan rated it it was ok Recommends it for: luddites, alll manner of loud mouthed anti-technology malcontents. This book is about how technology affects our society and culture. Specifically, this book is about how Technology negatively affects our society and culture. Postman is very one sided and hardly even pays lip service to any contradictory interpretations than his own. I read this book very quickly, in one sitting, finishing the book in an afternoon. I don't remember his whole argument. However, when I finished I remember being dissatisfied with Postman's arguments, thinking he was an idiot, think This book is about how technology affects our society and culture. However, when I finished I remember being dissatisfied with Postman's arguments, thinking he was an idiot, thinking the book was well written, and being damn proud of myself for reading the book in one sitting. Neil Postman gets two stars for good writing, he would have had more, except that I disagree with his thesis and he does not argue it particularly well. May 11, Mehrsa rated it it was amazing. I picked up this book immediately after I finished Postman's other book, amusing ourselves to death and while I think there is some overlap, I think both books are so well-written and so precise in their identification of the challenges of technology. I kept thinking "he doesn't even know about Google and Facebook yet! It's only gotten worse since the book was written. Postman is either a crank or a prophet I picked up this book immediately after I finished Postman's other book, amusing ourselves to death and while I think there is some overlap, I think both books are so well-written and so precise in their identification of the challenges of technology. Postman is either a crank or a prophet of our time and I lean toward the latter. Jun 04, Rob rated it it was amazing. This is my favorite Postman book so far. It was thought provoking to the point that it makes me question the use of the 5 star system on this site. I liked the scope of this book more than that of Amusing Ourselves To Death. There was more emphasis on our cultural ideologies and less on imagined historical ideals. Mar 07, Daniel Martinez rated it it was amazing. This book was incredibly insightful into the American concession of all things to technology and its advances. He also ends practically with a hopeful future for our society and its relationship with technology. May 29, Azzam To'meh rated it it was amazing. A great book which analyzes both philosphically and quantifiably the effect of the media, and technology in general, on our lifestyles. It examines the technologies which we do not even notice, and look at how those tools in themselves affect the information ecology within which we live. Feb 28, Douglas Wilson rated it it was amazing Shelves: culture-studies. Aug 14, David Sasaki rated it it was amazing Shelves: kindle. One of the most influential books about technology, narrative, and education that I have read. View all 4 comments. Dec 24, Stephen Case rated it really liked it. Being a social critic must be a lonely job. No one wants to hear what he says, I imagine, besides those already disillusioned with the system. For those though who have a vague sense that something somewhere has gone wrong but lack the words to articular exactly what, the social critic serves an essential function. He helps diagnose the problem. Neil Postman did this in his work Amusing Ourselves to Death , which I read years ago, when he talked about the way that television has shaped public dia Being a social critic must be a lonely job. Neil Postman did this in his work Amusing Ourselves to Death , which I read years ago, when he talked about the way that television has shaped public dialogue. One of the main themes in that book is that the medium is never neutral-- it shapes the message and the type of dialogue that can be conducted. Whereas print allows a certain level of dialogue and reflection, the medium of television news-- depending as it does on sensationalism and catering to the limited attention span of viewers, upon which their marketing model is sustained-- cannot. In this book, Technopoly , Postman takes his idea of the impossibility of a neutral medium deeper with his critique of the assumptions that underlie our technological world. Postman wants to chart the transition from societies in which tools are used by humans a tool-using society to a society in which those tools bring about radical social changes what Postman calls a technocracy and ultimately to the society we have today, one in which we no longer shape tools for ourselves but in which we shape ourselves for our tools a Technopoly. There are a lot of generalizations at play here, as one would expect in a three-chapter survey of the history of technology. Postman shows how the technology of writing transformed society and created an abundance of information that required institutions to manage. Schools and universities, for instance, arose in large part to help sort, organize, evaluate, and manage the new information created by the technology of printing. In the past century, Postman argues, technologies increasing the amount and immediacy of information-- the telegraph, telephone, television, and finally computer-- have proliferated much faster than the capacity of the institutions that exist to manage that information. Postman wants to show the unperceived and unquestioned ways technology shapes thought. Against those who believe technological progress is always desired and inevitable, Postman argues technology is not value-neutral. It carries with it a host of assumptions that fundamentally change the way humans interact with each other and their environment and conceive of the natural and social world. He provides specific examples from the field of medical and computer technology. The primary problem, he says, is the familiar adage that to a man with a hammer everything looks like a nail. Machines depend for their functioning upon the reduction of things to uniformity, automated processes, and problems of efficiency. The usurpation of culture by technology, Postman argues, takes place when this becomes the lens through which all human interactions are viewed. Machines predispose us to see social interactions in these reductionist, efficiency-driven terms. In these cases, Postman says, we are no longer simply using our machines; they are shaping the way that we view the world. His big examples here are the practices of standardized testing, questionnaires, polling, and the tools of social scientists-- basically the perceived ability to objectively quantify specific traits. The results of all this, Postman says, is that our culture places an inordinate faith in applying the methods of natural science-- quantification, empirical observation, testing-- to places where they never belonged in the first place, the realm of human interaction and society. Postman has a long screed against social scientists, who he believes misuse the tools of scientific practice and have contributed nothing to the actual understanding of the human mind or human interactions. I find this generalization to be a bit dangerous, especially the division he makes between studying the processes of nature allowable via the scientific method and human practices not allowable, because humans are too complex. What would Postman make of the burgeoning field of neuroscience, for instance, which combines aspects of the social sciences with biology and psychology? The divisions here are, I think, more tenuous than Postman allows. As a critique of a society that unquestioningly embraces technology and all the reductionist assumptions it entails, this book-- published over twenty years ago-- still seems incredibly relevant. Deeper than that though, Postman believes technology shapes the way we view the world. They cause us to re-conceptualize our problems in mechanistic terms, even when this is inappropriate. In some cases we start treating computers like people, and in many cases we start treating people like computers. Postman says that the only place the problems of Technolopy can be address are in the schools which are themselves a form of technology. The key, Postman claims, to helping people see the problematic assumptions of Technopoly is teaching the history of every discipline, especially the history and philosophy of science. As much as I agree with the call to historicizing knowledge and Postman is right-- this is the only way for knowledge to become more than a consumer product , the grand narrative of human progress that Postman thinks teaching should be structured around smacks of the very technological determinism that he is trying to avoid. Most of society focuses on what we gain with technology; Postman wants to make us consider what we lose, but more than that he wants to warn against the standards of Technopoly-- efficiency, information, standardization, immediacy-- becoming the standards of culture. This is a warning that is just as poignant now, if not more so, than it was when the book was first written. Oct 11, Suleiman Arabiat rated it it was amazing. A very fitting conclusion to Neil Postman's socio-critique books, having read The Disappearance of Childhood, Amusing Ourselves to Death, and the End of Education, I found Technopoly to be a culmination of this scholar's works in tackling the technology-influenced rapid change of our societies. Technopoly is a new term that the author is proposing as a descriptive term for the state we are in, a description that is as relevant today - if not more - as it was back in when the book was publish A very fitting conclusion to Neil Postman's socio-critique books, having read The Disappearance of Childhood, Amusing Ourselves to Death, and the End of Education, I found Technopoly to be a culmination of this scholar's works in tackling the technology-influenced rapid change of our societies. Technopoly is a new term that the author is proposing as a descriptive term for the state we are in, a description that is as relevant today - if not more - as it was back in when the book was published. It describes a state where technology overtakes all aspects of life, diminishing the questions of purpose and utility and raising the importance of efficiency and processes. A state where technology is a virtue in of its own, and technological advancement is an objective sought irrespective of its objective. Technopoly is another manifestation of what Marshal McLuhan have coined "The Medium becomes the Message", which the author cites on several occasions as well. The book's progression, as all of Postman's works, is smooth and well organized, it starts with identifying the problem, presenting the premises, defining the theme and the terms, and then critiquing each of the offshoots of the presented issue, technology as a monopoly on life in this book, with a concise progression. The offshoots of Technopoly he tackles here are the centralization of our culture around the computer, the medical technologies' impact on the practice of the essential-for-survival craft of medicine, the pseudo-scientism of the "social scientists", the irreverence and disappearance of symbols, and finally a brief manifesto on how to bring balance to this chaotic attack by technology. A great book, worth reading, citing, and building upon. Feb 18, Matthew rated it really liked it Shelves: social-science , owned-physical. This was a timely read for me. Many of Postman's warnings to society served as chilling wakeup calls to me. He warns against viewing efficiency as the highest good of life. I have to admit that I have accepted that lie into many areas of my life where it has no right to be. He warns against allowing the metaphor of technology absorb one's entire consciousness. Too often, I fall into that trap as well. He warns against taking the social "sciences" at their word, because their subject does not len This was a timely read for me. He warns against taking the social "sciences" at their word, because their subject does not lend itself to discovery of enduring truth as the subjects of the physical sciences do. In this and other areas, Postman's words reminded me of many things I have conveniently forgotten over the years as I've tried to make sense of the world and figure out what my place in it will be. This is a dated book though, and the conclusion is far from satisfactory. As far as I could tell, Postman's solution to the problem of a "technopoly" is to establish a humanist education system. That is great--except that is what we have been doing, and we are still in this mess. Postman comments on the tendency of social critics to find fault in their cultures but fail to provide solutions. In this case, I think that is definitely true. His comments about the state our culture is in provide a much-needed perspective, and I appreciate this book for that reason. Apr 18, Annelie rated it it was amazing Shelves: required-reading. In a world where the use of the computer and the smartphone is taken for granted, Postman's Technopoly is a necessary meditation on the ways in which our society's contemporary worship of science and information has ravaged the symbols upon which it was once based. Postman calls for us to reexamine our history, our symbols, and what societies of the past relied on for transcendence; he urges us to question the imperatives of efficiency and precision that undermine the complex and necessary retel In a world where the use of the computer and the smartphone is taken for granted, Postman's Technopoly is a necessary meditation on the ways in which our society's contemporary worship of science and information has ravaged the symbols upon which it was once based. Postman calls for us to reexamine our history, our symbols, and what societies of the past relied on for transcendence; he urges us to question the imperatives of efficiency and precision that undermine the complex and necessary retellings by writers, pyschologists, and philosophers of whom we are; and he wants to scrutinize how technology has rendered all of us subservient to the ideologies it declares. This is mandatory reading for anyone who wants to be literate on our times. I can't recommend it highly enough and not simply because Postman is not only incredibly intelligent, but incredibly funny. There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Readers also enjoyed. About Neil Postman. Neil Postman. Neil Postman , an important American educator, media theorist and cultural critic was probably best known for his popular book, Amusing Ourselves to Death. For more than four decades he was associated with New York University, where he created and led the Media Ecology program. He is the author of more than thirty significant books on education, media criticism, and cultural change including T e Neil Postman , an important American educator, media theorist and cultural critic was probably best known for his popular book, Amusing Ourselves to Death. He is the author of more than thirty significant books on education, media criticism, and cultural change including T eaching as a Subversive Activity, The Disappearance of Childhood, Technopoly , and Building a Bridge to the Eighteenth Century. Amusing Ourselves to Death , a historical narrative which warns of a decline in the ability of our mass communications media to share serious ideas. Since television images replace the written word, Postman argues that television confounds serious issues by demeaning and undermining political discourse and by turning real, complex issues into superficial images, less about ideas and thoughts and more about entertainment. He also argues that television is not an effective way of providing education, as it provides only top-down information transfer, rather than the interaction that he believes is necessary to maximize learning. He refers to the relationship between information and human response as the Information-action ratio.

TECHNOPOLY | 1 Definitions of Technopoly - YourDictionary

Ray Kurzweil. Reality Is Broken. Jane McGonigal. Present Shock. Douglas Rushkoff. Deep Simplicity. Geoffrey West. Anil Ananthaswamy. George Dyson. Leonard Mlodinow. The Intellectual Devotional. David S. Kidder and Noah D. The Idea Factory. How to Create a Mind. The Ultimate History of Video Games. Steven L. The Ultimate Book of Useless Information. The Journey of Man. Spencer Wells. The Hunt for Vulcan. Thomas Levenson. John Kuprenas and Matthew Frederick. Postman has emerged in recent years as one of America's most eloquent and outspoken critics of technology and in this book he elaborates on themes that will be familiar to readers of his earlier books, most notably Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business Here Postman contends that "the uncontrolled growth of technology destroys the vital sources of our humanity. It creates a culture without moral foundation," and reorders our fundamental assumptions about the world at large. New technologies alter our understanding of what is real, "which is another way of saying that embedded in every tool is an ideological bias, a predisposition to construct the world as one thing rather than another. A "Technopoly" a word Postman capitalizes throughout the book is a society that believes that "the primary, if not the only, goal of human labor and thought is efficiency, that technical calculation is in all respects superior to human judgment I hate that Social Science is displacing being well read when discussing opinions of public affair. This is just another rebuke of modern culture written by someone who has refused to adapt to changes. I don't know how to fix this; solve the problem for me. Oh, and if you don't agree with my assertions then you are an idiot. You completely understand exactly what you don't agree with as you're reading it. It's a good example of persuasive writing, but infuriating to anyone who is informed on the subjects that he speaks on as the learned reader can spot his "white lies" deliberate or born of ignorance, I'm not sure , incorrect assertions, and use of logical fallacies. View all 3 comments. Sep 23, Kris rated it really liked it Shelves: read-write-think , audiobooks. Very direct and short. I don't agree with everything he says, but it's worth a read as he has some interesting ideas. It's about the history of technology and its influence on our Western culture: how we think about tools and how we train our brains to work. He talks about the difference between learning information and facts knowledge vs. Most of all, he urges us to start critically analyzing our interaction with technology Very direct and short. Most of all, he urges us to start critically analyzing our interaction with technology something that still astounds me people don't do. He references ideas from The Closing of the American Mind. Some of his ideas reminded me of Lewis's "men without chests" from The Abolition of Man. I still want to read Postman's The Disappearance of Childhood. Jan 13, Paul Ataua rated it liked it. Despite being published in and therefore dealing with technology well before the internet revolution, many of the ideas are very relevant in our world today. Some really thought provoking points, like asking how important the invention of the printing press was to the coming of the Lutheran reformation. The central hypothesis that there are good and bad effects to every new technological advance needs to be put forward, but the book tends to repeat that point so many times and never really Despite being published in and therefore dealing with technology well before the internet revolution, many of the ideas are very relevant in our world today. The central hypothesis that there are good and bad effects to every new technological advance needs to be put forward, but the book tends to repeat that point so many times and never really goes deeper than that. May 28, Beth Barnett rated it really liked it. Another book about the danger of trusting too fully in technology. Postman's argument encourages us to keep those low-tech ideas and solutions that still work better and view technology with reason, looking for that which truly benefits us as humans, rather than embracing technology that degrades us. For similar writing, read Wendell Berry also. Jul 19, Trevor Atwood added it. It is without a moral center. It puts in its place efficiency, interest, and economic advance. It promises heaven on earth through the conveniences of technological progress. It casts aside all traditional narratives and symbols that suggest stability and orderliness, and tells, instead, of a life of skills, technical expertise, and the ecstasy of consumption. I loved his address of statistics in particular. Did you hear about the statistician that drowned crossing the stream that was an average of 4. Then follow up with this one. Aug 25, Matthew Rogers rated it it was amazing. This book will be relevant forever. Dec 31, Alex Stroshine rated it it was amazing Shelves: for-regent , sociocultural. For instance, Technopoly has created new specialists and experts who are able to wield and control technology and thus gain power, but to the detriment of other specialists who have been rendered obsolete by technology p. Postman also laments how we have come to suffer from information overload, echoing criticisms he made in Amusing Ourselves to Death in which he bemoaned how we are flooded with useless information that has little impact on our daily lives p. In chapter five the author discusses the role of institutions and how they help to separate worthy information from useless data; for instance, colleges prevent pseudoscience from being considered academic p. Postman notes that culture privileges statistical, quantifiable data, but not all knowledge can be measured purely by statistics. While some churches deliberately practice communion rarely usually these churches are suspicious of sacraments in general , can it be said that monthly communion is more significant than weekly communion? Jun 20, Brittany Horton rated it it was amazing Shelves: favorites. Anyone who opens my copy of Technopoly will see how much I enjoyed reading it. It is now filled with writing, underlining, stars, post-it notes and highlighter marks. This is my second book by Postman and I am definitely a huge fan of his theories. First of all, this is by no means anti-technology book. Postman gives a mostly unbiased opinion on the state of the technology culture today the Technopoly and how we as a society can begin to integrate technology into our classrooms without it fi Anyone who opens my copy of Technopoly will see how much I enjoyed reading it. Postman gives a mostly unbiased opinion on the state of the technology culture today the Technopoly and how we as a society can begin to integrate technology into our classrooms without it first swallowing education whole- but that's only the last chapter. Most of the book Postman spends discussing the history of the technological revolution, which started long before my generation. He discusses and explains how one generations' revolutionary invention has landed us here; now. He brings in an abundance of rich resources and ideas for the reader to consider. I appreciated Postman's emphasis on history in this book, he hardly goes into anything without first discussing the written past of whatever he is speaking about. This book helped me connect so many pieces of history together to see the bigger picture unfold. I really loved reading this and found most of the chapters fascinating- but reader beware- this is by no means a leisure read. Although fascinating- it will require your full attention. As previously stated I highlighted and saved many ideas, thoughts, and theories from this book but I especially loved this quote from the last chapter, "To remain ignorant of things that happened before you were born is to remain a child. Jan 06, Lucsly rated it it was amazing. Despite being written in , this book offers a view of the influence of technology on our lives that is as relevant as ever, if not more so in this age of government espionage on all our communications, of corporations greedily soaking up the personal information we happily share on social networking sites, of tech companies believing that their latest smart phone will improve our lives. To be sure, the author the cultural critic Neil Postman is not a Luddite: he does not deny the usefulness Despite being written in , this book offers a view of the influence of technology on our lives that is as relevant as ever, if not more so in this age of government espionage on all our communications, of corporations greedily soaking up the personal information we happily share on social networking sites, of tech companies believing that their latest smart phone will improve our lives. To be sure, the author the cultural critic Neil Postman is not a Luddite: he does not deny the usefulness of technology, but he warns against placing them central in our lives, in believing in them without any reflection on them. He offers a dissenting voice in the chorus of people worshiping technology. Even better, he remains nuanced and subtle in all of his arguments - a trait that I admire and rarely see in other writings about media and technology. This could be perhaps why he seems to be all but forgotten in the fields of scholarly research into media and its effects: in my experience, those scholars automatically see media and technology seen an improvement of our lives and an enrichment of our culture. He presents an excellent reminder to keep thinking and analyzing who we are, how we want to use our technology and if we want to let it influence us or not. Aug 16, Daniel Nelms rated it it was amazing Shelves: cultural-issues-apologetics. After reading this book, your eyes will be opened as to how much our lives are governed, defined and shaped by technology. It is indeed a tyranny of technology, a technopoly. Answer: there is a cause and here is the effect. Answer: there is a measurable cause and effect, etc. This is a must read. Apr 04, Murtaza rated it liked it. To be honest many of the ideas he espoused here felt somewhat familiar to me. In fairness, this book was written decades ago and so his ideas have had a long time to filter out. I wonder what he would make of the Technopoly given that this book was written even before the Internet was invented. He correctly notes "Amusing Ourselves to Death" by Neil Postman is one of my favorite books, and Technopoly offers some of the same kind of effective cultural criticism that made that one such a classic. He correctly notes that an absence of other solid cultural values degraded as they have been by other philosophical and scientific developments has left many of us completely unable to contextualize technology into our own lives. Instead, technology ends up dictating the terms and uses us for its own purposes. Unlike tools which we developed for a purpose, our development of technology goes on autopilot and we resign ourselves to going wherever we may with it. All in all this is a solid and necessary need to understand the age we live in. My own somewhat tepid review reflects the familiarity of many of his arguments to me. Jul 18, Dan rated it it was ok Recommends it for: luddites, alll manner of loud mouthed anti-technology malcontents. This book is about how technology affects our society and culture. Specifically, this book is about how Technology negatively affects our society and culture. Postman is very one sided and hardly even pays lip service to any contradictory interpretations than his own. I read this book very quickly, in one sitting, finishing the book in an afternoon. I don't remember his whole argument. However, when I finished I remember being dissatisfied with Postman's arguments, thinking he was an idiot, think This book is about how technology affects our society and culture. However, when I finished I remember being dissatisfied with Postman's arguments, thinking he was an idiot, thinking the book was well written, and being damn proud of myself for reading the book in one sitting. Neil Postman gets two stars for good writing, he would have had more, except that I disagree with his thesis and he does not argue it particularly well. May 11, Mehrsa rated it it was amazing. I picked up this book immediately after I finished Postman's other book, amusing ourselves to death and while I think there is some overlap, I think both books are so well-written and so precise in their identification of the challenges of technology. I kept thinking "he doesn't even know about Google and Facebook yet! It's only gotten worse since the book was written. Postman is either a crank or a prophet I picked up this book immediately after I finished Postman's other book, amusing ourselves to death and while I think there is some overlap, I think both books are so well-written and so precise in their identification of the challenges of technology. Postman is either a crank or a prophet of our time and I lean toward the latter. Jun 04, Rob rated it it was amazing. This is my favorite Postman book so far. It was thought provoking to the point that it makes me question the use of the 5 star system on this site. I liked the scope of this book more than that of Amusing Ourselves To Death. There was more emphasis on our cultural ideologies and less on imagined historical ideals. Mar 07, Daniel Martinez rated it it was amazing. This book was incredibly insightful into the American concession of all things to technology and its advances. He also ends practically with a hopeful future for our society and its relationship with technology. May 29, Azzam To'meh rated it it was amazing. A great book which analyzes both philosphically and quantifiably the effect of the media, and technology in general, on our lifestyles. It examines the technologies which we do not even notice, and look at how those tools in themselves affect the information ecology within which we live. Feb 28, Douglas Wilson rated it it was amazing Shelves: culture-studies. Aug 14, David Sasaki rated it it was amazing Shelves: kindle. One of the most influential books about technology, narrative, and education that I have read. View all 4 comments. Dec 24, Stephen Case rated it really liked it. Being a social critic must be a lonely job. No one wants to hear what he says, I imagine, besides those already disillusioned with the system. For those though who have a vague sense that something somewhere has gone wrong but lack the words to articular exactly what, the social critic serves an essential function. He helps diagnose the problem. Neil Postman did this in his work Amusing Ourselves to Death , which I read years ago, when he talked about the way that television has shaped public dia Being a social critic must be a lonely job. Neil Postman did this in his work Amusing Ourselves to Death , which I read years ago, when he talked about the way that television has shaped public dialogue. One of the main themes in that book is that the medium is never neutral-- it shapes the message and the type of dialogue that can be conducted. Whereas print allows a certain level of dialogue and reflection, the medium of television news-- depending as it does on sensationalism and catering to the limited attention span of viewers, upon which their marketing model is sustained-- cannot. In this book, Technopoly , Postman takes his idea of the impossibility of a neutral medium deeper with his critique of the assumptions that underlie our technological world. Postman wants to chart the transition from societies in which tools are used by humans a tool-using society to a society in which those tools bring about radical social changes what Postman calls a technocracy and ultimately to the society we have today, one in which we no longer shape tools for ourselves but in which we shape ourselves for our tools a Technopoly. There are a lot of generalizations at play here, as one would expect in a three-chapter survey of the history of technology. Postman shows how the technology of writing transformed society and created an abundance of information that required institutions to manage. Schools and universities, for instance, arose in large part to help sort, organize, evaluate, and manage the new information created by the technology of printing. In the past century, Postman argues, technologies increasing the amount and immediacy of information-- the telegraph, telephone, television, and finally computer-- have proliferated much faster than the capacity of the institutions that exist to manage that information. Postman wants to show the unperceived and unquestioned ways technology shapes thought. Against those who believe technological progress is always desired and inevitable, Postman argues technology is not value-neutral. It carries with it a host of assumptions that fundamentally change the way humans interact with each other and their environment and conceive of the natural and social world. He provides specific examples from the field of medical and computer technology. The primary problem, he says, is the familiar adage that to a man with a hammer everything looks like a nail.

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