TECHNOLOGY
TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE IS NOT ADDITIVE; IT IS ECOLOGICAL…WHAT HAPPENS IF WE PLACE A DROP OF RED DYE INTO A BEAKER OF CLEAR WATER? DO WE HAVE CLEAR WATER PLUS A SPOT OF RED DYE? OBVIOUSLY NOT. WE HAVE A NEW COLORATION TO EVERY MOLECULE OF WATER. A NEW MEDIUM DOES NOT ADD SOMETHING; IT CHANGES EVERYTHING. IN THE YEAR 1500, AFTER THE PRINTING PRESS WAS INVENTED, YOU DID NOT HAVE OLD EUROPE PLUS THE PRINTING PRESS. YOU HAD A DIFFERENT EUROPE. AFTER TELEVISION, AMERICA WAS NOT AMERICA PLUS TELEVISION. TELEVISION GAVE A NEW COLORATION TO EVERY POLITICAL CAMPAIGN, TO EVERY HOME, TO EVERY SCHOOL, TO EVERY CHURCH, TO EVERY INDUSTRY, AND SO ON. — NEIL POSTMAN
THE “OSBORNE 1” – MY FIRST COMPUTER
My first sortie into computers was defensive. It was around 1982, and I had this image of a teenager, his face screwed up into a mixture of disgust and disbelief, and the words I imagined coming out of his mouth? “You don’t know how to use a word processor!?” So—I had the time I was […]
How Can I Stop Using My Phone All the Time and Actually Connect with People in the Real World? [Ask Lifehacker]
How Can I Stop Using My Phone All the Time and Actually Connect with People in the Real World? [Ask Lifehacker]: Dear Lifehacker, Every since I got a smartphone I’m using it constantly. It dings, I respond. It entertains me in the car, in the shower, and even when I’m actually with other people. […]
HUNTINGTON LIBRARY
The next day, waiting for the film to come back from the lab, I went to the Pasadena Public Library. It was quiet and peaceful there. It occurred to me that it was a bit strange for a music video director to prefer this room to some other more flashy media environment, but it felt […]
1950s RADIOS
This video is a link from You Tube. All copyrights remain with the original copyright holders. (See out link policy) Before Elvis I used to lie in bed at night with the lights off, and listen to country music very low on the radio, the tiny orange lights of the tube amplifier shining through the […]
“SMART” WEAPONS 1992
Cable news was all over it. Soon we started to see the footage of laser guided smart bombs and cruise missiles fired from destroyers. There were concerns about Iraqi use of chemical weapons and the heat. A little over five weeks later the war was over. For years people complained that Bush stopped short of […]
EARLY TELEVISION COMMERCIAL FOR TELEVISION
I missed the radical importance of the transformation that had been happening since I sat in front of the tiny black and white screen in my parents’ apartment in New York City, my mind beginning to fill up with disparate images, far-flung images. (FROM AN AMERICAN STORY) This video is a link from You Tube. […]
STEVE JOBS: A BRIDGE. 1955-2011
Every morning I wake up and then all day and into the night I use what Steve Jobs invented to invent. Steve Jobs’ life is a testament to many things, I think, and many have been singled out, appropriately. I like that he is spoken of in the company of Edison. For me, his life […]
Good Night and Good Luck.
This video is a link from You Tube. All copyrights remain with the original copyright holders.
Neil Postman AMUSING OURSELVES TO DEATH 1985
Few books I have read on the effects of technology on culture have stood the test of time as well as Amusing Ourselves to Death. “It may be true, as Charles Beard wrote, that the primary motivation of the writers of the United States Constitution was the protection of their economic interests. But it is also […]
