“Siri, text Mom.” “Alexa, start the oven.” “Google, place my pickup order at the nearest Wal-Mart .” The prophecy of Neil Postman as outlined in Technopoly (1992) has likely exceeded even his expectations. A Technopoly, Postman says, “is what happens when a culture, overcome by information generated by technology, tries to employ technology itself as a means of providing clear direction and humane purpose.” (1992, p. 72) This statement seems to get more and more true every day. With the availability of the 24-hour news loop, instant internet news, and information on any topic or process of our choosing within seconds, we exhibit the criteria of a second definition Postman uses to describe a Technopoly. “It is what happens to society when the defenses against information glut have broken down.” (1992, p.72) As a culture we are plagued by information overload to the extent that we have become “tools of our tools” (1992, p.3) as Postman observed nearly thirty years ago.
It is easy to criticize the current situation and culture of technophiles as something external, but that would not be a full picture of the situation. This essay is being typed on a computer, for an audience that will access it online in various geographic areas. I have read nicely printed books aided by electric-powered lights, burning brightly in my air-conditioned house [A cause for the canonization of Willis Carrier, the inventor of air-conditioning, may be worth investigating, especially during this heat wave]. Today I ate food purchased several days ago which was kept fresh in a refrigerator. As Postman notes, “Every technology is both a burden and a blessing; not either-or, but this-and-that.” (1992, p.5) The goodness of Technology is all around us. In fact, the life of technology is inescapable, but perhaps some of the negative side effects of that life are, and Catholic Schools can help.
In a time when online or virtual school is common, the benefits and drawbacks of technology in education are not only seen, but brought into perfect focus. The employment of technology in the educational process has certainly allowed students to learn and grow; technology gives students access to information that was once relegated to a limited number of libraries, or even longer ago, a limited number of knowledgeable professors or orators. Online education today provides a great service. As Robert Mixa notes in his review of Hubert Dreyfus’s book On the Internet, online education is “making education more widely available and affordable.” (“Wired for God: a review of On the Internet by Hubert Dreyfus.”, 2020, Evangelization & Culture 3, pp. 21-25)
While technology has many benefits for the educational process, the highest goals of education seem to be undermined by the oversaturation of technology in the field of education. The intention of education to magnify the individual as made in the image of God and thus called to community and called to love is something that is, minus the outliers, missing in a techno-centered education. The human and spiritual formation elements of the Catholic school are even more difficult to assert in the technological world. The development of relationships within the school community are absent in school that buys in to the technopoly philosophy.
The use of technology can be a means of connecting students and teachers, as was seen in many schools during the pandemic of 2020-2021, but the level of connectivity is not fully human. The virtual world lacks a sense of commitment as Mixa notes. “Part of the danger of the internet is that there is no risk and commitment involved. One can easily leave a virtual community without consequence.” (2020, p.24) With the lack of commitment comes the lack of the human element of real friendship. Mixa points out that friendship is lived out in laying down our lives for our friends, and that seems impossible in a fully technological educational system. He goes so far as to say, “Insofar as the internet draws us away from friendship, it is a danger to the Christian life.” (2020, p.25) Eventhough “connectivity” is often employed as the primal argument for the use of technology, the most threatening aspect of the use of technology in education is the hindrance it can be to relationships and responding to the call we have to be in community, to be connected.
Fr. James Schall aids in developing a response to the threat of technology in the educational process by reminding his readers, “to recognize frankly that for Christianity, the locus of disorder is never found primarily in things, never in creation itself, except in that Pauline sense in which creation is affected by man’s own disorder.” (The Distinctiveness of Christianity, 1982, pp. 146-147) The real issue in this situation, which Schall alludes to, is man’s disorder and aversion to community that is only enhanced by the use of technology.
Postman offers a solution, or at least a response, to the oppressive use of technology in the culture, and he sees the educational process as a potential aid in overcoming the disorder. He recommends individuals to become “loving resistance fighters” (1992, p.182) by which he means, keeping close to the heart the foundational beliefs. He refers in particular to a patriotic view, but within the Catholic school, the same principle can be applied to the faith. In order to overcome the technopoly, the Catholic school can hold tightly to the traditions, the sacraments, the culture of Catholicism. Postman also notes that, “Technocracy [a step on the way to full Technopoly] also speeded up the world.” (1992, p. 45) Perhaps the Catholic school’s response to technopoly is to slow down. Instead of focusing on the end of production or the achievements of certain educational goals, the Catholic school should instead allow students the opportunity to enjoy the process of education, the process of learning and falling in love with Jesus all the while. This can be achieved by putting aside technology for at least some amount of time each day and providing students a time for real prayer and meditation.
Postman recommends that in order for schools to help overcome a technopoly, they ought to give their students, “a sense of coherence in their studies.” (1992, p. 186) He proposes this can be achieved through a more direct study of man, of history, the humanities and the arts. The focus on man in this way works nicely with the goal of Catholic education to form the whole person and aid students in the process of becoming who God made them, in his image, to be. A bolstering of Catholic anthropology in the Catholic school, a study of who man really is and who he ought to be, would certainly help to overcome the negative effects of techno culture. Then we might find that the Catholic school in fact can achieve what Postman claims to be impossible, the restoration of religion “to the center of the life of learning” and “the idea that learning is for the greater glory of God.” (1992, p. 186).
Thanks a Fr. Kirchner. I think this also applies to homeschool. The previous two years our kids took four of their seven classes in a live online format. This year I’ve cut that down to two (one being Latin because my sophomore is way more advanced than me, and I cannot keep up!) We needed a break from the computers. We are a week into school this year, and we are really loving our classical studies class, where we are reading aloud (from real paper) and discussing Cicero’s “Republic”, and our traditional logic class. I’m seeing that having a Socratic discussion around the table (or in the living room with an espresso) is much more rewarding than looking at people through a screen, even though online classes are often beneficial.
Thank you, Fr. Allen - timely instructions for us educators to slow down and intentionally remind ourselves and our students who we are, why we are here, and to Whom we belong!