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Technology

Too Much Entertainment Technology?

by Gregory Rehmke

UIL Spring 2001 LD debate topic: "Resolved: Increased reliance on technology undermines the quality of life in America."

Consider the technological advances in a wide range of outdoor sporting activities. Mountain bikes are far more sophisticated than they were a decade ago. New high-tech tires, brakes and frames have made bicycles safer and easier to use. Millions of American rely on new technologies for snow and water skiing, mountain and rock climbing, sky diving, camping, hiking, boating, rafting, and in many other activities. Tens of millions of Americans rely on new shoe technologies for basketball, football, soccer, running and just plain walking.

To what extent does increased reliance on these technologies undermine the quality of life in America? Well, critics could object to change itself. New mountain bicycle technologies have led to some odd-looking frames, for example, and the old-fashion gearshift levers that old-fashion people were used to have been replaced by much-simpler motorcycle-style grip gear shifters. Where is the challenge in that?

And old-fashion skiers now have to deal with snow boards and weirdly short skis. The point is that each new technology disrupts the status-quo in any outdoor activity, sport or business. There are many people who feel worse-off by such changes. Virginia Postrel argues that the stasis these people prefer comes at the cost of progress and new prosperity. Postrel argues, in her best-selling book, The Future and Its Enemies, that we should view many policy debates in light of this conflict between the supporters of stasis and the supporters of dynamism. The dynamists are the entrepreneurs constantly developing and marketing new technologies that transform outdoor activities and many other aspects of American life, as well as the intellectuals that write in favor of dynamic modern societies with their high-technologies and constant change. The supporters of stasis are always complaining about how the established world is being disrupted and made worse by innovations and new technologies. These critics wish for things to slow down and for the simpler world then have grown used. Of course the villains in their view are often young people in their teens and twenties who don't have an older world to cling to and who leap to embrace new technologies, from Napster to ICQ to new-technology scooters.

Schools have not much changed the way schooling is done, but the Internet is dramatically changing the way many of us shop. Cell phones and email are transforming personal and business communication. Video games consume endless hours of young people's time--hours spent in previous generations reading comic books or playing board games. MP3 programs and players are replacing CDs and CD players, which replaced Sony Walkmen, which replaced transistor radios and record players. Each new technology brought a wider selection of higher quality music to the public. But each also destroyed the value of the previous generation of technology. But people have always relied on technology to produce music, whether simple flutes and drums or more expensive guitars and pianos. The singing voice is the only music available without relying on technology. One could argue that if we did not have any technology to record and replay music, nor any technology to build musical instruments, we would spend more time developing our own singing abilities. There is a lot of enjoyment in singing alone and with friends, and though it takes years to develop these skills, the learning process can be fun too and it doesn't require batteries.

Once out of high school, very few people stay involved in staging plays or concerts. Why? Because we have inexpensive technologies that allow us to enjoy recordings of elaborately staged plays (movies) and concerts. Movies require technologies that stage plays do not. Here in New York City you can still choose from dozens of on and off Broadway plays, but in most of the country there are only movies to go see. Are we worse off for relying on technology to deliver entertainment? There would probably be millions more professional and amateur entertainers on local and community stages around the country if they didn't face electronic competition from Hollywood movies. So for the millions of young people who dream of being actors and directors, they have less opportunity today than they might have in a lower entertainment-technology world. (But to the extent they dream of being "world-famous," that would be even less likely. They could aspire only to being a locally- famous actor).

Are locally written, produced and acted plays somehow better for society? Well, the low technology plays of ancient Athens were astonishingly great and perhaps better than anything since. But even if the entertainment world could be transformed into a million Athens-sized city-states, it is unlikely that many would enjoy the talents of a modern Aeschylus, Sophocles or Euripides. But for those who blame the high cost of moviemaking technologies for diminishing the quality and variety of entertainment, new technologies are changing things again. New inexpensive digital cameras and personal computer editing technologies now offer moviemaking capabilities to millions. New iMacs costing under $1,000 come with moving-making software and digital ports for movie editing. And just-announced Apple computers with SuperDrives and iDVD software offer people the technology to produce their own professional-quality DVDs for under $4,000. These technologies will improve home movies and open the door to thousands more small film-making enterprises.

Does reliance on these entertainment technologies, and future entertainment technologies, undermine the quality of life in American society? Well, there is a lot to be said for extended and thoughtful conversations at the dinner table instead of fast-food meals followed by staring zombie-like at a flickering TV screen. But families can still choose relaxed dinner-table discussion, even with the DVD player and wide-screen television waiting impatiently in the next room.