“Technology, properly interiorized, does not degrade human life but on the contrary enhances it” (82) :
Well yeah, look how far computers have come. Now the Internet can travel via Cable Television instead of hogging up a phone line by dialing a phone number. But how can we interiorize technology? Simply stated, how can we incorporate technology within ourselves? Next time you see a computer, walk over to it. Put your hand on the mouse. Do you index and middle fingers fall comfortable on the top of each button? Does the rounded middle fit snugly in your palm as you control the movement with your forearm and wrist? If the computer is on, use the mouse to guide the on screen arrow. Can you place the arrow over an object and either open it or drag it around the screen? Tada! You’ve become technology’s new friend. Each component of the mouse, the buttons, the gliding ball, the connecting cord, all come together to improve efficiency in our lives. A mouse does something that a human physically cannot do therefore degrading us is out of the question. For all you tech-savvy brainiacs? Keep up the good work. For the rest of you timid creatures of habit? Break away from your comfort zone or else the whole world will pass you by–one click at a time.
Random fact that would never fly in our world today:
“It appears unlikely that most persons in medieval or even Renaissance western Europe would ordinarily have been aware of the number of the current calendar year — from the birth of Christ or any other point past…In a culture with no newspaper or other currently dated material to impinge on consciousness, what would be the point for most people in knowing the calendar year? The abstract calendar number would relate to nothing in real life. Most persons did not know and never even tried to discover in what calendar year they had been born” (Ong 97). Maybe this is what Jay-Z had in mind for his inspiration.
