A Comparison between Turkle and Postman’s Principles Page 1

A Comparison between Turkle and Postman’s Principles

Carl Peitz

Loyola University

Educational Technology Seminar ET 690

Dr. Amy McGinn

Introduction

Postman’s Ten principles of Technology are still relevant in education and our lives

today. The principles fit well alongside what Sherry Turkle discusses in her book, Reclaiming

Conversation. These principles have a general meaning that I believe Postman addresses, which

is, all technology has a good side and a bad side. I compare the Ten principles of Technology to

Turkle’s book, quote a few other articles, and show the principles are relevant in today’s world

and in education.

Postman’s Ten Principles of Technology

First off, I would like to address that I am a Technology Education teacher and can relate

to these principles well but also know how we changed Technology Education to more of an

Engineering field compared what it originally was 20 years ago. Postman describes the role of a

student at that time to “have a sense of how the world was made and how it is being remade, and

may even have some ideas on how it should be remade” (Postman, 1996). I believe our

curriculum in Technology Education today doesn’t focus on those key concepts of technology

and is hurting the way we look at technology overall today. Students’ study engineering

principles but, I feel miss the importance to why they are advancing technology and where it all

begin. By the students’ not researching from beginning, middle, to end they are missing the

cycle to which technology evolves making it good or bad. Overall, these principles address how

all technology has a reason for itself and includes advantages and disadvantages relating to many

subjects including political, social, intellectual, and economical.

Do you think that they are still relevant today?

Even though I believe Technology Education has changed, doesn’t mean the principles

aren’t relevant in today’s world. The difference is in today’s world, when we find a

disadvantage to a technology we quickly jump on it and try to change it immediately. This can

cause more disadvantages or an immediate pull of that technology from the world because of that

disadvantage. The world is advancing so quick now that we don’t give certain technologies time

to iron out their positives and negatives. Students in schools around the globe are all slowly

being pushed to a one-to-one school, meaning they receive some sort of device to be connected

to at home and in school to become a digital citizen or technologically literate. We pushed these

changes on students in our schools and now are seeing the disadvantages students have with

these technologies in school because they simply are not educated in all areas of the technology.

Postman’s number 2 principle states “The advantages and disadvantages of new technologies are

never distributed evenly among the population” (Postman, 1997). This means that every new

technology benefit some and harms others.” In an article “Technology and the Three R’s” it

reviews that very principle Postman states in number 2. It mentions schools are not necessarily

performing better with technology and all areas of the world do not have access to technology

and this means it doesn’t benefit all students (Veen, 2006). This makes one of Postman’s

principles relevant to the world and education today.

Turkle addresses early on in her book a school named Holbrooke Middle school, where

students seemed to be losing face to face conversational skills because they spent more time

texting (Turkle, 2016). This relates to Postman’s number 1 principle stating, “For every

advantage a new technology offers, there is always corresponding disadvantage” (Postman,

1996). Students may be conversing with multiple people in their lives over text but aren’t
A Comparison between Turkle and Postman’s Principles Page 4

getting enough practice with face to face conversations. This effect causes social issues later in

life in school and at home. Turkle then expresses reclaiming the conversation will reclaim our

most fundamental values (Turkle, 2016). It is important for students to know in school that

current technology and future technologies will always have a positive and a negative attached to

it.

Postman in his number 5 principle states: “Technological change is not additive; it is

ecological. A new technology does not merely add something; it changes everything” (Postman,

1996). From the places we sleep, to the places we work, to the roads we take to get there, it is all

innovative technologies. Anytime new technologies are introduced it changes everything in our

world still today. Turkle states in her book on page 232 “Technology makes us forget what we

know about life” (Turkle,2016). This is an important quote to think about when discussing the

world, we used to live in, which was very primitive. Students today have too much to learn from

and sometimes that is a bad thing. Turkle mentions how students are measured in educational

productivity and use lots of technological ways to completed tasks such as video tutorials

(Turkle, 2016). What ever happened to a good old conversation that included those tasks a

student would learn by discussing and doing in a classroom. I think one-to-one initiatives in

school is that very principle Postman writes “does not add to something; it changes everything”

(Postman, 1996).

In the book Reclaiming the Conversation by Turkle, she discusses Thoreau’s Three

Chairs as the overarching subject and a conversation about a fourth chair. These chairs

intertwine well with Postman’s 6-10 principles. These principles relate to specific technological

Biases. These biases are listed as: intellectual, emotional, political, sensory, social, and content
A Comparison between Turkle and Postman’s Principles Page 5

biases. Just as a DNA helix, I can see how Postman and Turkle have pertinent information

interconnected to each other.

Thoreau’s First Chair is solitude which fits in with Intellectual and Emotional bias from

within Postman’s Principle number six. The First Chair chapter in Turkle, covers solitude and

self-reflection. I think technologies with intellectual bias can affect how people interact with

certain technologies making it either easier or more difficult depending on the intellectual

difference. Older people have a harder time with newer technologies compared to younger

people. This can cause negative effects on people overall causing emotional biases also. If

someone can’t use a certain technology other people are using, such as a student in school that

doesn’t have a cell phone, it could cause emotional damage (Turel, Serenko, & Giles, 2011).

The way information is presented can be another issue for different cultures and language

groups. Intellectually and Emotionally, people can show the affects of not being connected or

being connected to their technology not allowing them to see what is in front of them. People

need that time back for solitude and time to have a great conversation face to face.

Thoreau’s Second Chair is Friendship which fits in with Content and Sensory bias from

within Postman’s Principle numbers 8 and 10. Physical form of technology can affect friendship

just from having different types of technology that may not connect to each other. I see students

in school bully each other over what type of headphones and phone they have. Economical

differences cause these issues and create relationship problems. Turkle includes family,

friendship, and romance in this chapter as she describes people’s real-life stories (Turkle, 2016).

Society is not blind to economical differences but with fast advancing technology, it sets people

further apart year after year. Families are torn by cell phone technology as Turkle described a

family who can’t communicate over dinner properly because of their phones. Couples or singles
A Comparison between Turkle and Postman’s Principles Page 6

dating are fighting and making up over text messaging causing them not to know how to act

when they are face to face with each other (Turkle, 2016). All these scenarios mentioned in

Turkle are proof that Postman’s principles are still relevant in todays society.

Thoreau’s Third Chair is Society which fits in with Social and Political bias from within

Postman’s Principle numbers 9 and 7. Social bias can either set us within a crowd or outside a

crowd. Turkle on page 10 says “We are so accustomed to being always connected that being

alone seems like a problem technology should solve” (Turkle, 2016). If we focus on others and

not ourselves we get away from ourselves and vise versa this is the virtuous circle breaking

down. Technology allows us more then ever to stay on the outside looking in, but some do not

ever actually allow themselves in, whether it is a crowd or socially connected to another.

According to the American Journal of Preventive Medicine “Being on social media for two hours

or more a day makes you 2X as likely to feel socially isolated” (Primack, et al., 2017). This all

still relates back to Postman’s Principles; all technology has positive and negative influence on

society. The more people that get addicted to social media and become alone, the worse at the

world will get at communicating face to face.

Politically, especially after the last election when Trump was elected, people have gotten

very mean over social media. Turkle talks about on page 298, politics need to be spoken face to

face because it is a complex conversation to have (Turkle, 2016). Recording or writing over

technology stages a political standing which is harder to do in face to face conversation and

allows for real talk on the subject matter. These conversations can be hard but are good to have

especially when they are national matters effecting our nation. Political and societal bias still

exist today with technology noted in Turkle and researched by the American Journal of

Preventive Medicine.
A Comparison between Turkle and Postman’s Principles Page 7

In conclusion, Postman’s Principles are still relevant in the world today. People aren’t

meant to be placed alone in a room and expected to solve the world’s problems. We solve

problems best by conversation. Bringing back the conversation is the basis of Turkle’s book and

the basis of Postman’s principles are to realize what technology does, good or bad. I am going to

end this paper how Postman ended his article but add my spin on it. It is up to the educational

system and families alike to teach how the world was made, how it is being remade, and

hopefully have some ideas on how it should be remade (Postman, 1996).

References

Postman, N. (1996). The end of education: Redefining the value of school. New York: Vintage.

Primack, B. A., Shensa, A., Sidani, J. E., Whaite, E. O., Lin, L. Y., Rosen, D., . . . Miller, E.

(2017). Social Media Use and Perceived Social Isolation Among Young Adults in the

U.S. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 53(1), 1-8.

doi:10.1016/j.amepre.2017.01.010

Turel, Serenko, & Giles. (2011). Integrating Technology Addiction and Use: An Empirical

Investigation of Online Auction Users. MIS Quarterly, 35(4), 1043.

doi:10.2307/41409972

Turkle, S. (2015). Reclaiming conversation: The power of talk in a digital age. New York:

Penguin Press.

Veen, C. V. (2006, Jun). Technology and the three R's. Government Technology Vol.19, Issue 6,,

14+. Retrieved from https://sks.sirs.com