This is well argued. Had I known the author he cites felt that the printing press was an ultimately negative thing for humanity, I would have found the quote he used to be suspect. My personal thoughts on the matter is that a smartphone, or the internet, is a tool used by people. In and of itself, it is neutral. The way people use it is what should be examined (by the people using it) and, as those have said in these comments, if there is an imbalance between it and the other aspects of human life, change should try to be made. I'm trying to separate the fear of technology from the valid points. I still think it's an interesting debate. And while I also felt to dichotomy of reading his indictments against the internet on the internet, I believe we can and should discuss the impacts of this medium while together on this medium. We shouldn't let the absurdity stop us from weighing the highs and the lows of this technology that connects us with so much today, and assessing how much is too much. Individually. That's as far as I'm willing to argue. Others are free to disagree if they believe it necessary to proselytize unaware iPhone users to a more technologically-balanced lifestyle. Lastly, I want to say that I don't think a face-to-face conversation has more value than catching up with someone on the phone. I'm against monocultures, against cutting yourself off from the diverse array of conversations and connections walking past you while you're looking down.
I think it might be a stretch to say that Postman believes the printing press was ultimately negative, but I think what he finds to be the negative aspects of it are dubious. It's not that I don't see value in weighing the positives and negatives of technology, and the ways in which we use it, but I also think that going the complete opposite direction and rejecting ownership of a smartphone on principle, or worse judging those who do own and use one, is also unproductive. (Note that I can completely respect not owning any gadget for basically any other reason - financial, not finding it useful for yourself, not liking the interface or features.) I think in this way, we agree - it's good to look at things in many different lights and be self-aware of our flaws, but we can't be so obsessed with the negative that we can't accept changes. There are a great many issues at play with culture here in the US, and I'd say that things like "looking down" are a symptom of other social realities, including but certainly not limited to our use of smartphones or other gadgets. Consider the fact that Americans almost obsessively lock their doors, even in pretty safe neighborhoods, but in other countries (including Canada, as I'm given to understand) people don't always feel the need to be behind lock and key. They have the exact same technology available to them, but they use it differently - obviously there's something else at work. But it'd be ridiculous to say "I'm sick of everyone locking their doors all the time, so I'm not going to buy a lock for my door." For your amusement, here's a highly relevant comic from yesterday: http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2873#c...
Absolutely. And thank for pointing out that comic!
Now that I think about it, maybe it's just that I want to live in Italy, where strangers are comfortable talking to strangers.