I’m not going to lie… I feel like I have written at least five blog posts on whether the advancement of technology is good or bad. If you start typing “negative effects of…” in Google, the top four search results are the negative effects of “the internet,” “social media,” “weed,” and “technology.” Three of the four are technologies while the fourth only enhances the technologies. Let’s count that as four for four. When I read the prompt, I initially met it with the typical eye-roll and snide remark, “Again? Writing about this AGAIN? But why..?” And there I was introduced to my actual prompt of choice: Why is technology and its effect on society the go-to topic of discussion?
The answer to the prompt is quite clear because look, we get it and so does Baron, technology and its effect are a double edged sword. Without technology, communication, transportation, innovation, etc. are threatened or ceased. With technology, pollution, cybercrime, lack of privacy, etc. can increase. In this sense, I don’t think Baron shares anything groundbreaking in the excerpt provided. However, McLuhan sheds an interesting light on the often predictable discussion by relating technology to the “roles for people” instead of the equipment or opportunities for people like Baron discussed. McLuhan argues that such roles are merely extensions of ourselves. All responsibility for the effects of technology are redirected away from technology itself and placed on the humans using said technology: “This is merely to say that the personal and social consequences of any medium—that is, of any extension of ourselves—result from… each extension of ourselves, or by any new technology.”
So if technology is blameless, then really humankind needs to get its shit together, right? (Pause for laughter and scoffs.) We know this is irrational. If we can’t expect people to use technology wisely, even if that means not using the technology at all, and if seemingly all technologies have some negative effect no matter how miniscule, then should the creation of technology just cease? But wouldn’t halt of all technology be worse than the combined negative effects of some technology? So wait… is the advancement of technology good or bad? AND THERE WE GO. Back to square one. Although McLuhan shares an interesting point about technology and its effects, he doesn’t shatter the double edged sword. Instead, he reorganizes the arguments by adding “automation” and “machine” to the mix. He simply adds another reason why technology and its effects on society is the go-to topic of discussion.
2016: A. Bass Blog 