In the introduction of Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman's son, Andrew, insists that "far fewer people join clubs that meet regularly, fewer families eat dinner together, and people don't have friends over..." (pg. xiv), and he states that these occurrences are all attributed to technology. I, however, hold a completely different perspective. After much deliberation, I have come to the conclusion that life ITSELF is moving faster, and technology is merely a variable of life that had to keep up.
To elaborate, consider this example: my friend is taking summer school, participating in the band, and attending drivers ed this summer; furthermore, she is working on completing her summer homework through trips to the library and is trying to find time to hang out with her friends. Her affairs keep her occupied from morning to late at night, yet no form of technology (not her TV or computer) is actually responsible. These undertakings are merely necessities of life in order to earn a drivers license and go to college. If technology (mainly in reference to her cellphone) is guilty of anything, it would be the crime of keeping her connected with her friends and family, thus facilitating stronger relationships.
Postman (senior, that is) does point out an implication that is particularly crucial in this instance. On page 27, he proclaims that "medium changes demand a certain kind of content", and this is where technology acts as the antagonist within society. Though technology keeps us in constant contact with our friends, it can also corrupt us. How often are we forced to "dumb down" a statement because we are sending it via text message? It's absurd to believe that a person is willing to insert into a text message the same amount of eloquence that would go into a normal face-to-face conversation. So is technology, thus, helping to impair the English language? But perhaps this is only a consequence of a fast-paced life. So who is to blame here- technology or society?
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I believe that both are to blame. I agree with you that society does have a part in making life more fast paced. However, I believe that technology does in fact play a role in impairing English. Many of the terms or abbreviations that are used through the internet have become so common that we are starting to use them in our daily language. Personally, there are some times where I have just logged off Facebook or AIM to start an essay only to find myself writing like I would on the internet.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion concerning the situation, I think that society might be the one to blame here. If you take into consideration how the technology we have used becomes more complex and advanced everyday, it is actually us, the people that choose what we do with the technology, which is to laze about and impair our english language (e.g using the computer or texting and typing "the short hand way"). The reason why we do this is because "we don't have enough time", but what we could do at least is to type our thoughts fully without abbreviating or using "tech" terms. In my experience, doing so has made me more aware at many writing errors that others or myself might possibly make as we start writing.
ReplyDeleteNathaniel, As you write, try to notice phrases such as "In my opinion concerning the situation" and "might possibly" and just delete them. They do no real work, and they gunk up the prose.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, I love the phrase "laze about."
Keep writing!
I agree with Kylee- they are both at fault. My reasoning for this is:
ReplyDeleteOne, technology has become too advanced. We have become too adapted to this way of high-tech life, that we abandon old methods of communication and speech.
Two, we, as a society, choose to use advanced technology. No one forces us to use the latest inventions and gadgets. We don't have to... it's more of a choice we make.
And Nathaniel, I completely agree about our texting lingo. It has definitely gotten out of hand. It is very scary that we write things like "ttyl" or "lol". It only saves us a few seconds. (Ever since I read "Amusing Ourselves to Death", I TRY to avoid the "Texting Language"). All of these factors are affecting our language.