What's wrong with technology?

According to Webster, technology is:

1 a : the practical application of knowledge especially in a particular area : ENGINEERING 2 b : a capability given by the practical application of knowledge [a car's fuel-saving technology]
2 : a manner of accomplishing a task especially using technical processes, methods, or knowledge
3 : the specialized aspects of a particular field of endeavor

We are most family with definition 1 and perhaps 3, but thinking of technology as a way of doing things is sometimes foreign to us. Technology is indeed a system of doing things. According to Ursula Franklin, there are two types of technologies: holistic and prescriptive. Holistic technology is similar to the notion of craft. Like the artisans, they have total control of the entire process of creation from beginning to end. Control is completely theirs. Prescriptive technology is specialization by process. The entire process of creation, like the making of a piece of furniture, is divided into "clearly identifiable steps". Each worker is only skilled in one small particular step and usually has no idea of the entire process. The result is a "division of labour".

The problem with most modern technologies is that they are of the prescriptive type. Just look around the banks, supermarkets, schools, hospitals, etc., most workers are skilled in only one or two areas and they perform the same task everyday. How can one be creative if one has limited understanding and exposure to the big picture? It is easy to reduce a worker to an automaton in such an environment, and this has far fetching implications on being and feeling like a robot in this technological society. It is no wonder why there are so many lonely people around!

How do our high tech gadgets fit into all this? Each gadget claims that it will deliver more "value for the buck" than any other existing forms of technology. The goal of each gadget is to provide a function so well in one, or even perhaps a few, particular areas that it replaces or ignores other experiences associated with that function. An example is the cell phone that allows one to communicate with anyone anytime that there is no need to really meet physically, such that the human interaction in face to face setting is lost. Similarly, the MP3 player allows one to be so immersed in an alternative realism of sound and music that there is no need to go to the concert or enjoy the serenity of being present in the nature. In other words, technological toys and gadgets isolate those essential functions from the totality of experience, much like what prescriptive technologies afford us to do in the division of labor, and fools us to think that we can achieve more now even though we are missing out in many other dimensions of our experience.

"Every technology is both a burden and a blessing" (Postman, 1993, p. 5). Think about this the next time you pick up a high tech gadget!

Reference:

Franklin, U. (1999). The Real World of Technology. Toronto: House Anansi Press.

Postman, N. (1993). Technopoly, The Surrender of Culture to Technology. New York: Vintage Books.