I want to start off my thoughts on Technopoly with a little bit of fun.
…To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Without being too literal, we may extend the truism: To a man with a pencil, everything looks like a list. To a man with a camera, everything looks like an image. To a man with a computer, everything looks like data. And to a man with a grade sheet, everything looks like a number.
-Neil Postman, Technopoly, p. 14
Postman published this book (in 1992) before the spread of the internet or the mass popularity of cell phones, but much of his wisdom could easily apply to either. I wonder what he would add to this list today. Here are a few possibilities: to a man with an Instagram, everything looks like a photo op. To a man with a Twitter, everything looks like a hashtag. To a man with Google, everything looks like data waiting to be searched. To a man with an iPhone, everything looks like a text message, photo op, app, etc.
Those are terrible examples. Feel free to add your own.
To a man with a book, everything looks like a story.
I like it!
To the modern man with a modern job, very little looks like a home. To the modern man with modern “facts”, very little is known of value. To the modern man, who is a modern “individual”, nothing looks like community. To the modern man with his modern “religion”, a holy text couldn’t possibly look “political”. To the modern man with a modern art, nothing appears as belief. To the modern man with a modern economy, “ethics” need make no appearance. To the modern man with modern knowledge, nothing is needed of wisdom. To the modern man with his modern hammer, no hammering need be attended to… To the modern man, the form is divorced from the function, and the medium has no message of its own. To the modern man with a hammer, everything may look like a nail.. or perhaps it all looks like a flame-broiled flamingo…
The statement is true that if the modern man believes hammers are for nails, and he has a hammer, then all looks like a nail. But he may choose to believe a hammer is for flamingos, in which case he may believe he sees flamingos everywhere. One can never assume the obvious with modern folk. A woman is not necessarily for a man. Food is not necessarily for the body. Knowledge is not necessarily for wisdom…