What is Assumed in “Social Dynamics of Communication and Technology“?

Introduction

With the rise of technology, computer based communication has become a normal part of communication between many different people in may different areas of their lives. Something that is important to note when discussing assumptions is that most assumptions can be wrong, but have some type of innate truth involved in those beliefs. Neil Postman is a brilliant man who has had a lot to say about the rise of communication through technology and the influence this has had on social dynamics.

Neil Postman has had a major impact on the way communication scholars and audiences approach the issue of the media‘s growing influence in society.  Growing up in New York City and spending most of his life there, he was able to see firsthand the rise of the media in every day interactions.  Postman died in 2003, but his ideas and critiques on modern day “technopoly” have made great strides in the academic community.  His academic career, major contributions, and theories are all important pieces to the puzzle that make up the success of this educator and academic in the area of technological communication.

Major Contributions

The most famous of Postman’s books is Amusing Ourselves to Death.  His major argument is that television is meant purely for entertainment and any attempt to make it anything other than that in vain.  Much of his emphasis is placed on the problem with public discourse in the media.  His claim is that nothing can truly be honest when the people have to perform in front of an audience. This has taken a toll in many ways in the fashion world. The TV show Project Runway is a perfect example of this. The larger the demographic that the show reaches, the more the designers have intense pressure to be "creative" and appealing to the masses. Many designers on the show crack under the pressure of having to relate to and create in a way to impress the millions of viewers watching the show. Postman would say that something that is assumed in social dynamics of communication and technology is that there has been  major shift in the way people relate with one another from a face-to-face communication to computer mediated communication.

Postman gave a well-known speech called Informing Ourselves to Death, a couple years before writing his famous book “Technopoly”.  This speech echoed sentiments about the problem of mankind viewing efficiency as more important than knowledge.  He famously said, "Information is now a commodity that can be bought and sold, or used as a form of entertainment, or worn like a garment to enhance one's status.”  Postman was speaking to the German Informatics Society about the negative influence that technology has had on public discourse.  He goes on to say that, “It [information] comes indiscriminately, directed at no one in particular, disconnected from usefulness; we are glutted with information, drowning in information, have no control over it, don't know what to do with it."  Postman openly discussed how the overflow of information negatively effects the way that people communicate with one another and ultimately means that there is less learning going on.  With so much information available, many people are unsure of how to use it properly and effectively to positively influence society.

Conclusions and Fashion

Postman’s work remains just as relevant, if not increasingly so, today as a new generation makes use of an astonishing array of new technologies.  We have become a more technological generation and there is only a rise in different types of technology every day.  It is great to know about a fresh prospective about the media and technology when approaching how media affects our every day lives.  Postman makes an important step for academics in the direction of noticing power relations within the media. He was not alive to see how popular social networking sites were to become. However, I think that while he is brilliant, I personally believe that efficiency means that society both progressing and digressing (not just digressing).

In the case of fashion, prints are now made using technology, the obsession with efficiency has meant the outsourcing of jobs to poor areas where the working conditions are horrible human rights violations, there are more people connected than ever to have a say about designers’ choices (fabric, style, etc.). Technology in the fashion world has meant creating and sustaining the need for haute couture and everyday clothing. People are “connected” with more people than ever because of social networking sites and more people than ever feel an imperative to reinvent themselves through how they choose to express themselves in dress. Fashion has never been one dimensional, but in this technological age, fashion touches more areas of the world every day growing with technology, influencing new ways that people relate with one another through social dynamics.


References
Postman, N. (n.d.). Neil Postman: Informing Ourselves to Death. Departamento de Matem_°ticas. Retrieved September 21, 2010, from http://www.mat.upm.es/~jcm/postman-informing.html

Postman, N. (n.d.). Neil Postman: Five Things We Need to Know About Technological Change. Departamento de Matem_°ticas. Retrieved September 21, 2010, from http://www.mat.upm.es/~jcm/neil-postman--five-things.html

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

Postman, N. (2005). Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business (20 Anv ed.). Boston: Penguin (Non-Classics).

Saxon, W. (2003, October 9). Neil Postman, 72, Mass Media Critic, Dies. The New York Times. Retrieved September 19, 2010, from http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/09/obituaries/09POST.html?ex=1381032000&en=b8599f343b896c35&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND