2012-01-16

Amusing Someone Else To Death

Neil Postman said, “culture pays a price for technology,” and that “technology favors some people and harms others.” Globalization allows us to pretend this is not so. Really, we export much of the harm to other countries. In this week’s This American Life Mike Daisey describes the mammoth Foxconn factories where iPhones are carefully pieced together by hand. Tens of thousands of Chinese laborers work 14 hour days in huge industrial complexes so I can look at pictures of cats on the internet anywhere I want. The technology that allows the creation of such a small and powerful computer is amazing, but the economies of scale that make it affordable are terrifying when viewed up close.