Article 1
Engine of Liberation
Most people tend to think that this computer is the core thing, which changed the course of human life. However, the author argues that the car had a much more dramatic effect on the life of the entire society.
It is interesting to say that after reading the arguments that Gordon provides in his article, I notice that I agree with almost every of them. It is true that the well-being of every member of society is growing, as well as the desire to be secured and have a car. This desire would be almost impossible if people still used horses instead of cars. It sounds funny, but the horses would be everywhere, and the top-rated offices would have huge stables instead of a hidden parking (Gordon, 1996). It would be a world of horses, not the human one.
However, the car is not a horseless carriages. Automobiles have transformed the world, people began to build long roads that were previously not needed. As a result of the automobile revolution, the world of advertising has undergone significant changes in its style and design of billboards. The advertisement, especially the road one has become easier and more colorful, giving the audience a short, concise and clear message.
In fact, cars` impact on our lives is really underrated. They are waiting for us all day at the office building, which would be impossible for the horses. All people use automobiles, even those who do not have their own cars. We buy cars, borrow money for this purpose, use public transport, taxi, trucking. People do that just to save time to do more things. We take the car for granted, but John Steele Gordon (1996) says that the cars made a real industrial, social and economic revolution, and it is undoubtedly true.
Article 2
The Judgment of Thamus
The main idea of this article is «Every technology is both a burden and a blessing; not either-or, but this-and-that "(Postman, 1992). I gave a quote at the beginning of this essay because this idea reflects the deep sense of the article. In spite of this, the author divides people into those who can be called “technophiles”, and those who see the technology as a burden. Although this article was written about twenty-four years ago, it has retained its relevance. Even now, when almost all spheres of human life are automated and people enjoy the privileges of technologies every day, if not every minute, people are divided into two categories: technophiles and critics. Someone might suggest that technophiles are mostly young people, and critics are old people. However, this is not entirely true. There are many cases in real life, when old ladies learn computer science in order to get a job, or just to view recipes online. However, rarely, but there are young people who are quite skeptical about the usefulness of technologies in our life. As a rule, skeptical people say about technological dangers to health, lack of lively communication and mental degradation of people as a result of too frequent use of the technology benefits.
Since there is the word "Thamus" in the title of the article, it is necessary to explain that Postman bases his article on Thamus legend, in which Thamus discussed writing as a revolutionary process with irreversible consequences. Postman compares the technology with Thamus` views on writing, who said that if the writing was used only for creating specific types of texts, its disrupting effect could have been minimized (Postman, 1992). The same can be said of the use of technology. In fact, globally, Thamus` opinion can be estimated as valuable because some technologies allow people develop, but many people use it instead of thinking with their own heads. The simplest example is a calculator. Someone uses it to quickly calculate complex mathematical fractions, and some people can use a calculator to find out how much is three plus two.
Article 3
The Data-Driven Life
This article is about self-tracking, which is a real trend today. It seems that people have found a real alternative to psychologists - they just track their time spending and activity in order to analyze it then. However, the objectivity of such a self-examination remains a big question.
However, many people not only track their activities, but also share it on social networks. It makes think that they're just bragging. In fact, social networks, where everyone shares the results of their self-tracking, looks like a global competition "Who is better".
Nevertheless, the global trend of self-tracking is a good sign. People become more aware and conscious, as they are interested in the dynamics of their life and the reasons why something goes one way or another. Whereas previously people did not know many things about themselves and said "this is just because of nature", now people look for these answers in the statistical information about themselves, and they find it.
References
Gordon, J. S. (1996). Engine of Liberation. American Heritage, 47(7).
Postman, N. (1992). 1: The Judgment of Thamus. Technopoly.
Wolf, G. (2010). The data-driven life. The New York Times, 28, 2010.
