Become a Loving Resitance Fighter

Every once in a while I come across something that completely changes my way of thinking. This happened recently after reading Niel Postman’s 1992 book: Technopoly:The Surrender of Culture to Technology. I learned about the book from Paul Rand’s book Design, Form and Chaos. Rand refernces the book while discusses the potential problems that computers and technology are bringing to the design profession.

The basic premise of Technopoly is that technologies are not always good. Any technology, not matter what the perceived benefits are, bring with them negative aspects, and can change the way that society and culture function at a very deep level. He argues that we often ignore the negative aspects because we are so enamored with what appears to positive.

I’ve always been a technologist, and have been a quick adopter of technologies, but this book has made me think differently. As someone who makes a living from technology, I now feel the need to really evaluate deeply the products and solutions that I might be responsible for introducing. It seems very possible to design something (even a web page or application) that can negatively change the way that people interact with other human beings. Am I taking essential and beautiful human behaviors and giving them to the computer? or am I designing things that enhance and amplify humanity?

Postman provides some advice for us, and encourages us to become a “Loving Resistance Fighter.” His tips are sound advice, and a good start for anyone who feels that technology’s grip on your life might be getting a little bit too tight.

• Pay no attention to a poll unless you know what questions were asked and why.
• Refuse to accept efficiency as the pre-eminent goal of human relations.
• Free yourself from the belief in the magical power of numbers, do not regard calculation as an adequate substitute for judgement, or precision as a synonym for truth.
• Refuse to allow psychology or any “social science” to pre-empt the language and thought of common sense.
• Be suspicious of the idea of “Progress.”
• Do not confuse “information” with “understanding”
• Do not regard the “aged” as “irrelevant”
• Take seriously the meaning of family loyalty and honor.
• When you “reach out and touch someone” expect that person to be in the same room.
• Take the great narratives of religion seriously
• Do not believe that science is the only system of thought capable of producing truth.
• Know the difference between the sacred and the profane.
• Do not wink at tradition for modernity’s sake
• Admire technology, but do not think that it represents the highest form of human achievement
• Never accept technology as part of the natural order of things.

Viva la resistance!