Technology: Offering convenience (and a convenient excuse)

Selfe's book talks a lot about the technology myth constructed in our culture. Technology spells progress, and progress includes equality. It cannot be denied that computers are fashionable. They are new and fresh and promising. Technology is convenient and potentially revolutionary, but ultimately, it’s a tool, and like all tools, what gets done with it in our hands will define it. Only once we understand the positive and negative consequences of this new technology are we in a position to ascribe a value to it. Leaving our worries and sense of accountability behind us in the computer age is more than silly and irresponsible; it is altogether too easy. We must remember that while technology and intelligence get inextricably linked in our cultural myths, computers do not have a mind. Rather, people program them to regurgitate information and respond to commands. Computers are thus unlikely sources of change. Only the human element can introduce abnormal discourse to the conversation about technology, and only from that abnormal discourse can be hope for change from technology.