Ecologizing Mobile Media

This is Howard’s post on Thefeature. He did an exercise to “apply Postman’s “Ten Principles of Technology” (from The End of Education) as probes into this complex storm of forces most people in the world find ourselves experiencing in our daily lives.”


“5. Technological change is not additive; it is ecological. A new technology does not merely add something; it changes everything.

More people can organize collective action with people they weren’t able to organize before, at times and in places they weren’t able to organize before. The ways cities are used, political demonstrations are organized, entertainment is scheduled and daily life is coordinated are already changing.

6. Because of the symbolic forms in which information is encoded, different technologies have different intellectual and emotional biases.

Mobile voice communication is “hotter” in the McLuhan sense, conveys nuance, and leaves less for the recipient to fill in. Texting is “cooler” and leaves more interpretation of nuance up to the receiver of the message.

7. Because of the accessibility and speed in which information is encoded, different technologies have different political biases. ”