“Globalization, as defined by rich people like us, is a very nice thing… you are talking about the Internet, you are talking about cell phones, you are talking about computers. This doesn’t affect two-thirds of the people of the world.”
Jimmy Carter – 39th President of the United States of America
This quote reminded me of the point Neil Postman (1992) makes that the benefits of technology are not evenly distributed – that there are winners (us rich folk) and losers (the other two-thirds of the world, many of whom are living in absolute poverty…and could care less about Smartboards).
Thus, technology is defined by how we use it. Alone, technologies are simply masses, some more complicated than others. Our use defines these technologies as tools that educate, bore, kill, cure, entertain, sicken, protect, liven, assist, earn, create, nourish, express, enrich, mass produce, save, etc… It is up to us.
Postman, N. (1992). Technopoly: The surrender of culture to technology. New York: Vintage Books.
