Thoughts on Downey and Gleick
Downey’s book Technology and Communication in American History was an interesting read. I enjoyed how it was laid out with each chapter about a new period of technological advancement. During the first chapter and woven throughout some of the later text, Downey mentions sociotechnical (Downey, 5). The sociotechnical theory is recognizing how technology is improved and understood through human usage. I enjoyed how Downey used this theory in order to frame the history he was discussing because I agree that a large part of understanding technological advancement is knowing how humans interacted with previous technologies and how that evolved into what we see today. It makes me reflect on chapter 2 of Gleick’s book about how writing advanced throughout time. For instance, he mentions that the 20th century had a revival of orality seen with technology such as the telephone (Gleick, 48). When looking at the idea of reviving orality, I think it makes sense given human’s desire for more convenient and accessible forms of communication. Therefore, a natural progression from letter writing was to have a way to communicate long distances with speech.
Another aspect from Downey I enjoyed was his mention that photography is a form of communication. I find visual mediums, aside from writing, are overlooked as ways to convey something, but art, dance, music, and photography can all have meaning and messages behind them that make them a more abstract form of communication. Downey also mentioned how inventions being patented by companies have caused America to have extreme competition with innovation, and I like the relevancy of this information. Today you have companies, such as Apple, that are constantly trying to outdo older products each year in order to keep consumers wanting to buy more of the “latest technology.” From our class discussion, I liked how we broke down each chapter as groups and figured out the main idea, or thesis, of each chapter. I think determining the conclusion’s thesis was great at capturing the underlying theme throughout the book: “Communication technology has always been faced with competing demands because we expect a lot from our infrastructures of communication, which must continue to properly function for public interest while still being profitable.”
Works Cited:
Downey, Gregory J. Technology and Communication in American History. Washington, DC: American Historical Association, 2011.
Gleick, James. The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood. New York: Pantheon Books, 2011.
2 replies on “Blog #3- 1/26/23”
I agree with you that companies now a days constantly try to outdo each other. I think that in most fields the quality of products has gone down since they just want to put stuff out fast. I also liked that we discussed each chapter of the reading as a class.
I really liked seeing your comments and views on the Downey and Gleick readings, as you made some very good observations and I felt the same way about some points. I also felt the same way about the positives of how we broke down each chapter down into groups.