Images of Technology

After reading “Images of Technology in Popular Films” by Steven L. Goldman, I can honestly say as much as I hate to admit it, in some ways the article is in fact true. Looking in today’s perspective, technology is only growing and consuming the human mind more and more, day by day. Our classrooms are now filled with portable computers, and our hands are constantly jittering away at our androids and iPhone’s.  We can now watch movies instantly with on demand and Netflix. In a way this can be viewed as an “evil” fixation because it clutters the human mind. We now prefer to simply Google assignments, rather than open up the text book (at least for me anyways). I like to tell myself that I am educating myself by looking things up on my phone, but in reality I’m only looking for a shortcut. The article addresses the changing nature of sciences depiction in film, and for me I do believe it conveys a message to future generations, whether the movie was created in 1925 or the present. There are so many movies that display this notion; one of the most recent movies was Wall-E. Yes, the Disney movie. Wall-E is a perfect example of how technology can exhibit negative traits to our future. The movie is about a robot that was designed to clean up human waste on Earth in the future. The whole planet was covered with trash and eventually too toxic for living conditions. All the humans however, lived on a ship, where robots took care of them. They sat in chairs and were too lazy to walk, and to think, thus leaving them totally dependent on technology.  With all the talk about pollution and obesity going on today it reveals a great example of the direction we are headed. Now, of course we depend on technology, and it is created in order to make our lives easier, and much more efficient. In many ways it is a blessing and has significantly improved human conditions. I believe there is a limit though, and as I mentioned earlier I am guilty of burying my head into my phone, which is the wrong way of utilizing the great benefits of technology. The article indicates that movies in the 1920s have depicted technology in a negative way, even though it is highly supported and has been highly supported for over 40 years. Of course, this is done for entertainment purposes but at the same time it does guide the human mind to wonder “what if?” It subtly injects anxiety into our minds about just how bad technology can be. Again, referring back to Wall-E it displays the direction we are headed into. It may be an over exaggerated outlook however, it does display the negative connotations that can impact our lives through technology.