David Parry was correct. Indeed this week’s reading, Heidegger’s “The question concerning Technology,” was probably the hardest and confusing 30 pages I ever read, not only during grad school but on my life. While reading this text, twice, I felt like I kept jumping back and forth on thinking that I understood what Heiddegger was trying to say to not having a clue of what he was saying. From the first couple paragraphs I understood that the purpose of this text was to question of what technology means. Heiddegger says that not because the definition of technology is correct it means it is true. So according to my understanding in this text Heiddeger explains his questioning process to be able to find the true essence of technology. To be honest I’m not sure how Heiddegger concludes that in his text. The one thing I did got out of it, is that technology is ever-changing.
Heidegger states, “Everywhere we remain unfree and chained to technology, whether we passionately affirm or deny it.” Society becomes more dependable of technology by the minute as technology evolves. I mean think about it for a second, how would you go on your daily life without the use of technology? Society relies in technology for the simplest tasks that allows us to survive. Technically is possible to cook without technology (no stove) but the truth is it would take so much time to do it 3 times a day that the entire way of living would take a 360 degree turn.
I don’t think depending in technology is a bad thing. In the contrary, thanks to technology societies quality of life became much better. The problem in this dependency is that we have forgot how to do things without technology. I just think is important to understand that will technology fail, and when it does is not the end of the world. Probably it would be very hard to do most stuff without technology, but at least you can reduce the use of it. I’m not saying that we have to go back to the Stone Age, but at least know our options when something fails.
In the storage room in my closet my parents still keep their typewriter. When I was a kid they didn’t teach you how to use typewriters in school anymore, at least the school I went to didn’t. I had my first computer class at the age of six. It was one of those old computers where everything you type on the screen was on green. My parents didn’t buy a computer for the house until I was in the fifth grade. So through my elementary years I learned to use the typewriter. My parents made me use it a couple of times for school projects. Right now I really don’t know why I would have needed it; probably they just wanted me to turn in something more presentable. Honestly it was kind of annoying using the typewriter especially when I knew how to use a computer. Still it turned out to be a good thing. When I was in middle school the printer ran out of ink, and of course I was doing my homework last minute so my mother made me typed it on the typewriter. Good thing my teacher didn’t mind (probably because she was old) and it just was a minor project. Actually the last time I use a typewriter was about 4 years ago. I was over at my grandpa’s house and he wanted my help in typing some labels for his folders. Truth be told I did messed up a couple of times but at the end I got it right. My grandfather actually laughed at me because I didn’t know how to use them correctly, but at the same time he was surprised that at least I knew the basic idea of how to use it. If my computer were to fail right now, a typewriter would probably not be the best solution since it would be hard to post it online. Then again I can always type it up, go to Kinkos scan it and post it. It would cost money and take longer but is a solution. Still a solution that not many people could figure out. Certainly when technology fails on me I do freak out and even get upset, but I know that even for a while something may seem harder is not impossible to get it done.
At the end of the day technology has make our lives easier by getting things done faster and better. Without it the world would not be the way it is right now. The way society works evolves as technology evolves. In a way they go hand in hand. Stopping dependence on technology is basically impossible. And there is no harm in it. The harm is done by society not realizing that there is a way around when technology fails. After all technology did not invent technology, it was humans who created it.
No comments:
Post a Comment