Added: Oct 12, 2008
From: tranquileye
Duration: 10:49
"Am I using this technology, or is it using me?" Charlene Hunter Gault interviews media theorist and cultural critic Neil Postman on PBS' The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour in 1995. Postman discusses new media and the "Faustian bargain" of technological change in the context of the "Information Superhighway" and the Internet.
Channel: Howto
Tags: culture cyberspace education humanism information internet media neil postman superhighway theory web
Rating: 4.88 (59 ratings) Views: 12429' favoriteCount='150 Comments: 45
mohammadmurtaza Says:
Oct 12, 2008 - This guy looks like a child molester, I get chills up my spine when he says, "you can be who ever you want to be in cyberspace."
PickThisCar Says:
Oct 12, 2008 - Wow, the Internet was very little in 1995. He had a lot of foresight.
samdonuge Says:
Oct 12, 2008 - Postman provided a sociological analysis of technology. The framing of the 'limit' technology is inappropriate; he merely contextualizes it.
RThornhill69 Says:
Oct 12, 2008 - Thank you for saying something intelligent. Much like what Postman stated here, I had to sift through an endless supply of unnecessary comments just to find something of use. Recently, I was thinking about getting the new iPod Touch. And then I imagined myself watching even more television wherever and whenever. I'm not buying it. It's all flash. Doesn't solve anything for me in my life. Just complicates it.
gu88766 Says:
Oct 12, 2008 - gibson the guitar guy?
gu88766 Says:
Oct 12, 2008 - what are you yammering about? i would never talk to 19 year olds about the future. when i was 19, i was reading alvin toffler's future shock and since then i've moved on to marshal mcluhan and neil postman.the billions of dollars made on the internet doesn't mean anything to the interpersonal value.
soulstice99 Says:
Oct 12, 2008 - sounds more like dr. jim sadler than herb sewell
f60563 Says:
Oct 12, 2008 - this guy is right on the money. wow
2pussyrider Says:
Oct 12, 2008 - at least he doesn't make himself look like a fugly and cocky terrorist bitch
2pussyrider Says:
Oct 12, 2008 - that was for mohammadmurtaza
JasonERF Says:
Oct 12, 2008 - His apprehensions were bang-on. Great video... Would make some people on this site cry if they saw it.
mohammadmurtaza Says:
Oct 12, 2008 - at least im not a cultureless beaner from an aids infested country
BillBillard Says:
Oct 12, 2008 - so1)technology isolates and fragments us2)more information won't change power imbalances3)technology generally solves the problem of a)having to hire workers who ask for time off, want benefits, etc by replacing them AND if your competitor adopts it, you are forced to b)maintaining profitablility4)technology uses us
FATMIME Says:
Oct 12, 2008 - 'When you are in Cyberspace, you can be anything you want..." Sounds good to me...I'm 25 yrs oldI'm 6ft tallI'm an athletic bodybuilder.I weigh 180 pounds.I make $250,00 a yearI live in a 3000 sq ft house.I drive a brand new 2008 GMC TruckHmmm, nice.
emptyhighways Says:
Oct 12, 2008 - If i'm not mistaken, the word "cyberspace" was coined by William Gibson in his novel Neuromancer published in 1982. The one that spearheaded the cyberpunk thematic-aesthetic. In the novel, as far as i remember, it is a sort of fully immersive virtual reality, a paralel dimention digitalis, which is shared by all it's users and is used to traffic information.
jml4000 Says:
Oct 12, 2008 - If there are children solving in Somalia, that doesn't have anything to do with insuficient information? How can people people even help the starving Somalian children if they can't locate Somalia on a map, let alone even know it's a country?
hyacks71 Says:
Oct 12, 2008 - wrong - postman was stating that we have more information about hunger, somalia (yes even its geography...) and the transportation of food than we have ever had. Regardless of this glutton of information, somalians are still starving
jack9911 Says:
Oct 12, 2008 - inn-ter-net????
emceescher Says:
Oct 12, 2008 - I definitely have some disagreements with this man over his criticism of "afro-centric" education andI disagree with his claim that racism exists, but information won't help solve it.
emceescher Says:
Oct 12, 2008 - Also, I think he was flatly wrong in some respects.Also, I've been a reader of his for years, but I believe he failed to perceive the capabilities of the internet. He was right in his criticisms of it, but there were positives he failed to forsee, in my opinion.
pilkingtonphil Says:
Oct 12, 2008 - Wow, that statement just stinks of paradox... Seems like you're more of a cultureless, racist, underdeveloped technophile from a country that produces citizens who are actually able to insult another person for their coming from a country with an AIDs problem and to base their value jusgements of people on what you consider them to resemble... Postman had a good point about the inability to communicate and empathise online it would seem...
veryfuck Says:
Oct 12, 2008 - fuck the internet, and tvthey should ban it, back to the roots back to the primitive fuck technology.
cypherks Says:
Oct 12, 2008 - Kill your television. Read more Marshall McLuhan.
franfranfranfran Says:
Oct 12, 2008 - This guy freaks me out.
guitarboy22j Says:
Oct 12, 2008 - Do you get what I mean? He's saying tech is always both good and bad, never only one. And you can't blindly say "tech is always good".