Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology

Postman (1931-2003) was a media critic and professor of education and communication at New York University for over forty years. He earned a master’s degree and a doctorate in education, in 1955 and 1958, respectively, from Columbia University. His earliest work was in the field of education. He and coauthor Charles Weingartner wrote a book called Teaching as a Subversive Activity, in 1969, in which they advocated the Socratic method in schools. Also called the “inquiry method” or “inquiry education,” this is teaching based on asking meaningful questions that often don’t have easy answers. Students are encouraged to ask questions of their teachers, and teachers facilitate discussion with more questions rather than give pat answers. Students’ interests guide the lessons rather than a preconceived plan from teachers.

Ten years later, in 1979, Postman updated his educational ideas (as sole author) in a book called Teaching as a Conserving Activity. In the ten years that had intervened, the educational and societal environment had changed. In the late 1960s, he perceived society as too static and top-down in nature and presented ways to “subvert” that accordingly. By the late 1970s, the educational environment had relaxed considerably and television dominated culture as a source of information. His argument was that schools should balance out whatever society provides in abundance; thus, a change was needed. The word “conserving” in the title is meant to conjure the idea of a thermostat balancing between hot and cold aspects of society. He also disagreed with school curricula that included sex education, psychological motivation, and religion. Thus, he put forward a curriculum that countered the pop culture provided by television and returned to fundamental subjects like history and language. In addition, he advocated subjects such as media studies that provide tools for understanding contemporary society. This curriculum is much like the one he includes in Chapter 11 of this book.

In the 1980s, Postman focused much of his attention on the issue of television in society. His 1982 book The Disappearance of Childhood examined that medium’s influence on children. Childhood, he argued, was a social construct largely created by the printing press; literacy provided the dividing line between childhood and adulthood. Television is in many ways a simpler medium, offering access to all who watch it, and this tends to blur the lines between the two phases of life, to the detriment of children. Perhaps his most famous book is Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, published in 1985. Again, the topic is television, but he expands his analysis to show its harmful effects on virtually all aspects of our society, from public discourse and politics to art and religion.

After Technopoly (1992), he turned his attention back to education, publishing The End of Education: Redefining the Value of School in 1995. In this book, he criticizes schools for training students to be workers and consumers and for adopting technology without restraint. He writes that schools need overarching narratives to provide a purpose and sense of community. For instance, he returns to the idea put forth in Chapter 11 of this book that students should have a sense of the continuity of humankind by learning about the past in order to better understand the present.