Smallish Post 2 Inspired technology

There is an issue that I find very interesting  to think about.  It's whether or not some technology is inspired.  On one hand, people give thanks to God for some technology being invented.  God created everything, therefore he created technology.  This argument happens a lot in hospitals.  On the other hand, people say that technology is not from God, because it is man's attempt to approve on God's creation.  These people use evidence of where technology has hurt people instead of helped them, such as computer hacking and identity theft.  I view this issue as a subcategory of a "The problem of evil".  God created everything, and there is evil in the world, so did God create evil?  To me it comes down to agency and responsibility.  God does give us gifts, such as technology, but how we use those gifts is up to us.  We choose to use them for evil.  So I think it's not the question of whether certain technology is evil or not, it's a question of whether the person using the technology is evil.

Current Event 2 Natural Order

Postman's fifth idea is that some technology becomes mythical or part of the natural order of things.  It's become the natural order to have the latest and greatest smartphone in the market.  The manufacturers have noticed.  Each popular line of phone like the Galaxy S series or the iPhone series comes out with a new phone every six months.  People buy them because that has become the natural order.  Build quality has been sacrificed because a phone's release date is more important.  With the latest release of the iphone (iPhone 6 and 6 plus) there have been some major build quality issues.  The phone will bend under the smallest of forces.  It does not matter to most people who are planning to buy the new iPhone.  Either they don't see the fragility of the phone as much of a problem, or they know that they are going to get a new one in six months anyway.  They can endure the six months knowing they will have a new phone soon.  

Birth of the Subscriptions

I was reading this article by Edgar Alvarez on Engadget http://www.engadget.com/2014/09/22/microsoft-office-365-students/ so I felt like I should give my opinion on the up and coming trend of program subscriptions.  I don't like it.  Whenever I spend money on a product, I would like to own the product itself, not "own" the privilege of using the product.  It's similar to the difference between renting or buying a house.  There are benefits of both, but bottom line leasing is renting the house and buying is investing in the house.  Buying a house is better.  Buying software is better than renting.  Buying a subscription could lead to buying software that I can't really afford.  Short term you do save money, but long term you do not.  But the reason why I don't like subscriptions is I do not own things that I'm paying for.  From what I understand subscriptions are getting more and more popular as well.  There are rumors that operating systems are going to become subscription based.  I'm not looking forward to that.

Neil Postman's point of view

I agree with most of the things that Neil Postman says in his article "Five Things We Need to Know about Technological Change".  Technology does come at a price, there are winners and losers, and changes caused by technology are ecological.  In one way or another, these statements are true most of the time.  They are also relative.  Price in this case has a negative connotation, being something that is unwillingly given.  But this isn't always the case.  The things that people give up because of technology could be willingly given.  I imagine that there were several farmers that gladly gave up their sickle for a combine harvester.   Being a winner or a loser is often left to our point of view.  McDonald's is coming out with a machine that will take food orders for customers instead of the employees.  Some could consider the employees losers in this scenario.  They could also be winners if they take this opportunity to go find a better and more meaningful job.  It depends on your point of view.  So these statements that Postman are making are mostly right, but he's choosing to look at it in a negative light, and there are other ways of looking at it.

I'm trying blogging for the first time to see how it works.