Michelle P. (MichellePostOffice) reviewed Technopoly : The Surrender of Culture to Technology on + 74 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
Postman really makes you rethink some of your assumptions about technology and realize there's a down side as well as an up side.
Helpful Score: 2
Could Postman have been any more wrong? His overall point that new technology has both benefits and drawbacks seems valid, if based solely on personal intuition. However, his specific arguments and evidence haven't held up well over time. in the first couple chapters, he sadly opines about the fate of the blacksmith due to modern industry, and warns (in the early 90s mind you) about the soon-to-be obsolescence of teachers due to the rise of computers. He complains that only large companies have been helped by modern computing, and that it's unlikely individuals will ever find computers useful.
It's debatable that he wasn't already wrong when his book was first published in 1992, but nearly twenty years later, teachers are still employed and the Internet is both bringing individuals together and killing off some large companies such as newspapers and brick-and-mortar outlets.
Granted, it's easy to criticise Postman in hindsight, but I can't help but feel that this book will be used as a humorous anecdote for just how short-sighted a lot of 20th writers were in their predictions of future technology.
It's debatable that he wasn't already wrong when his book was first published in 1992, but nearly twenty years later, teachers are still employed and the Internet is both bringing individuals together and killing off some large companies such as newspapers and brick-and-mortar outlets.
Granted, it's easy to criticise Postman in hindsight, but I can't help but feel that this book will be used as a humorous anecdote for just how short-sighted a lot of 20th writers were in their predictions of future technology.
