Technology! Friend or Foe:
A Look at the Price Society Pays for Technology
David C. Ford
University of Hartford
Throughout the past couple of weeks, this course has brought my attention to many ideas
and uses for technology, as well as the way these things affect us. In today’s society technology
is used everywhere and viewed almost as a necessity for everyday life. Although the creation of
these technological devices has done great for society, as said by Neil Postman, “Technology
giveth, and technology taketh away.”
I feel like the simplest way to explain this thought from the first idea of Postman’s, “Five
Things We Need to Know About Technological Change,” would be as trivial as the literal cost we
pay for technology. For example, I am currently typing this essay on an Apple MacBook Pro
from 2013, a piece of technology that would have cost me one thousand five hundred dollars if I
paid full price. In today’s society, the idea of a laptop is something simple that is owned by most
people, as opposed to times when everything was hand written. Do I think that the device that
