Certainty Abolishes Hope, And Robs Us Of

Tv Serves Us Most Usefully When Presenting Junk-entertainment; It Serves Us Most Ill When It Co-opts Serious Modes Of Discourse - News, Politics, Science, Education, Commerce, Religion.

When Two Human Beings Get Together, They're Co-present, There Is Built Into It A Certain Responsibility We Have For Each Other, And When People Are Co-present In Family Relationships And Other Relationships, That Responsibility Is There. You Can't Just Turn Off A Person. On The Internet, You Can.

Embedded In Every Technology There Is A Powerful Idea, Sometimes Two Or Three Powerful Ideas. Like Language Itself, A Technology Predisposes Us To Favor And Value Certain Perspectives And Accomplishments And To Subordinate Others. Every Technology Has A Philosophy, Which Is Given Expression In How The Technology Makes People Use Their Minds, In How It Codifies The World, In Which Of Our Senses It Amplifies, In Which Of Our Emotional And Intellectual Tendencies It Disregards.

People Of A Television Culture Need “plain Language” Both Aurally And Visually, And Will Even Go So Far As To Require It In Some Circumstances By Law. The Gettysburg Address Would Probably Have Been Largely Incomprehensible To A 1985 Audience.

But It Is Much Later In The Game Now, And Ignorance Of The Score Is Inexcusable. To Be Unaware That A Technology Comes Equipped With A Program For Social Change, To Maintain That Technology Is Neutral, To Make The Assumption That Technology Is Always A Friend To Culture Is, At This Late Hour, Stupidity Plain And Simple.