Neil Postman's Speech

In his speech at Calvin College, Neil Postman uses some of the same examples that he used in his book. He quotes the author of the book Being Digital who predicts that in the very near future we will be more comfortable talking to inanimate objects than other people. In fact, he thinks we will communicate more with technology than with humans. This parallels with how Postman views technology and communication. He said: "...when we consider the great number and variety of tools for conversation that go beyond speech." This proves that he feels that our society is moving toward or has already reached a point where we do not actually talk with people face to face, but converse with them using technology. Another example from Postman's speech that relates to his book is when the author of Being Digital says that "we need to adapt to our technological future". He states that we adapt very easily to things, so we can adapt to the way that communication will change. Indeed, our future could include communicating less and less with real people. In Chapter 1, Postman says that "our languages are our media, our media are our metaphors, and our metaphors create the content of our culture." This statement is very true because our culture revolves around media. This statements parallel with each other because our technological future includes media being the center of our culture. Society today relies on being able to find out information right away, without any delay. The future of our society is that technology will keep improving which will lead to more impatience. We adapt to new technology because it is faster and better, so he feels that it will be very easy for us to "adapt to our technological future."