Technology: For Better or for Worst

Throughout the book Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman, typography is replaced by the new age of television. According to chapter 11, technology is corrupting and taking control of our nation and will keep doing this until we become more educated in what we are watching on television. There is some truth to this; however, I don’t believe it is entirely accurate.

The fact that technology is advancing excessively fast is sometimes bad but without it, our population could be hitting a new low. With an advancement in technology, doctors and engineers are able to work together to create machines such as the ones used in chemotherapy. Soon, cell phones might actually be all that we need in our pocket to carry because soon, credit cards are going to be imbedded into our cell phones according to the website (http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10074366-94.html). Even now, people can pay for their bills via their cell phone, and they don’t have to go through the trouble of sending them in by mail. Our cell phones even double as Mp3 players, so iPods might soon be rendered useless. Technology is truly advancing and I believe it is for the better.

On the other hand, the minds of children are being replaced with technology. The internet is being abundantly used for things other than academics while fewer kids are reading the newspaper and doing Sudoku or crossword puzzles. Advanced calculators that do the graphing for us have also been made which requires us to work our brains less which are not good for us in the future for we need to keep thinking in order to be more intelligent. Hardly anybody nowadays writes a letter and sends it. Instead, we lazily sit in our chair and type an email, click send and within a matter of seconds, the email is already sent. So maybe next time, you should try sending a letter by hand because it may mean a lot more than typing it up and sending it with the press of a button.