Vow of Silence, Gone Wrong

     On Friday, Mr. Brandt had both of his AP Language classes go through a whole day without using words.  We could not talk, text, or even write a note.  The only form of communication was through drawing images or to act out what we were trying to say.  I actually thought that it was going to be harder than it was, that does not mean that it was not difficult trying to get a point across without the other person walking away annoyed.  Trying to get  a command such as, "give me a pen" or "can i go to the bathroom" was the easy part, however attempting to tell a story or hold a conversation with a friend while walking down the hall was near impossible.  A person just does not get every necessary feeling or detail through a drawing or action as a thirty word explanation would.

     Our assignment on Friday relates to Postman's book Amusing Ourselves to Death.  Neil Postman says that we are soon to lose all word concept.  Using words is a big part of our lives, and even though technology seems to be taking over a lot of our day-to-day lives, I do not agree with him.  I believe that no matter how far technology goes and how many new things are invented, people will still communicate with words.  People will not lose the concept of face to face talking because it is, proven in the experiment on Friday, the only way to truly get the full point of a conversation.

Don't Fret, My 'Pet'.

     In Postman’s speech, he references words spoken by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe “One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.”  Throughout his speech at Calvin College he shares his opinion of the 21^st century and how we as humans are slowly adapting ourselves to become “merely pets of computers.”  In the book Amusing Ourselves to Death also states how we are getting used to the new technology and we are going to always keep looking for more and more.  As technology progresses we will become more comfortable talking to machines and inanimate objects.  “It is a delusion to believe that the technological changes of our era have rendered irrelevant the wisdom of the ages and the sages.” 

     For example, the new discovery of cloning shows us that we are getting so used to the technology that we are willing to put a body in “storage.”  It started off as a sheep, a monkey, and then a frog, but now it is stretching as far as cloning a human being for just-in-case purposes.  Humans are adapting to the morals of the new century.  Postman’s allows the reader to know that technology is slowly but surely taking over the lives of humans.  We have accepted the fact that we are willing to change our life styles and morals to adapt to technology that is created in our world.  People are now dependent of the current machinery such as cell phones and television.  The use of words spoken, face to face, is being replaced with new technology and the idea behind communication is being lost as we fill our lives with machines and new communication devices.