Article 1: Five Things We Need to Know About Technological Change

Neil Postman’s ideas are all relevant to today’s society. His article is based on his five ideas. First idea: “for every advantage a new technology offers, there is always a corresponding disadvantage”. Second idea: “advantages and disadvantages of new technologies are never distributed evenly among the population”. Third idea: “Embedded in every technology there is a powerful idea, sometimes two or three powerful ideas”. Fourth idea: “Technological change is not additive; it is ecological”. Fifth idea: “which is that media tend to become mythic”. I can agree with the first, second, and third idea, because we can see those changes happing in the world today. If you take a look at the fourth idea, I think it is addictive not ecological, because once you start using a technology like a cell phone, you will always want to use your cell phone. The fifth idea I think is way out of line by saying that God wants us to have these new technologies. That statement is more of a religious thing then an actual opinion.