It Is Not Entirely True That A

Anyone Who Has Studied The History Of Technology Knows That Technological Change Is Always A Faustian Bargain: Technology Giveth And Technology Taketh Away, And Not Always In Equal Measure. A New Technology Sometimes Creates More Than It Destroys. Sometimes, It Destroys More Than It Creates. But It Is Never One-sided. The Invention Of The Printing Press Is An Excellent Example. Printing Fostered The Modern Idea Of Individuality But It Destroyed The Medieval Sense Of Community And Social Integration.

Everything In Our Background Has Prepared Us To Know And Resist A Prison When The Gates Begin To Close Around Us . . . But What If There Are No Cries Of Anguish To Be Heard? Who Is Prepared To Take Arms Against A Sea Of Amusements? To Whom Do We Complain, And When, And In What Tone Of Voice, When Serious Discourse Dissolves Into Giggles? What Is The Antidote To A Culture's Being Drained By Laughter?

Watching Television Requires No Skills And Develops No Skills. That Is Why There Is No Such Thing As Remedial Television-watching.

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.

As A Culture Moves From Orality To Writing To Printing To Televising, Its Ideas Of Truth Move With It.