Oct 14 2010
Is technology neutral?
Having read some of the comments in the previous discussions, especially on the role of TV in changing the way we live and learn, I cannot see technology as neutral. Clearly our society has changed (not sure it’s evolved) in the years most of us can remember. I might be tempted to say we have changed more especially in recent years with web 2.0, but then I think of watching the first lunar landing, or seeing a videophone prototype at Expo 67. I could not have imagined my life would be so interconnected to the tools I use. Did my mother define her daily life by the stainless steel oven my dad installed in the 1960s? Was her free time improved by the latest Electrolux vacuum cleaner? It seems silly when I put it in those terms, yet I cannot deny that my lifestyle, my learning practices, my entertainment choices and of course, my teaching practices are all affected by the technological advances that have occurred in my time.
What disturbs me is whether we are questioning the effects of technology on our society or whether we are living at the pace that technology seems to now be dictating for us. Shades of Heidegger??