Chapter Five

Perhaps it’s just me, but I found chapter five and its discussion on technology versus how it changes society incredibly interesting. While one side of the argument is that society is what demands the changes in society, another side is that it is the technology itself with changes society.

I think that to some extent, both work simultaneously. For example, take something like the roomba (for lake of a better example coming to mind). No one needs a roomba per se. Technology is increasing because they are looking for ways to make life easier. But society is also getting lazier because of the convenience that technology gives us. It becomes a situation then of what came first, the chicken or the egg?

Another example that we could discuss is the idea about pictures and photography. It used to be a social norm within society to have portraits done. If you were high in society, you would spend hours sitting as an artist sketched your outline and painted a picture. Now, it has become more common place to be instantly gratified and have a family portrait taken at Glamour Shots in the mall. For those that still want an actual portrait to hang over their mantle, the artist will still paint a picture, but they will use the photograph as a base model instead of the actual model themselves.

After awhile though, even photographs became obsolete and cinema became the new rage. Portraits took much too long, photography was more instant, but film could show a progression of images.