Public life will have disappeared because we did not see, in time to reverse the process, that our dazzling technologies were privatizing almost all social activities. It became first possible, then necessary, to vote at home, shop at home, listen to music at home, see movies at home. We replaced our libraries with interactive videotext, which even encouraged individuals to change the ending of stories if they didn’t like them, so that there no longer existed common literature. We replaced schools with home computers and television. We replaced meeting friends with the video telephone and electronic mail. We replaced visits to far away places with virtual reality. We became afraid of real people and eventually forgot how to behave in public places, which had become occupied almost entirely by criminals. The rest of us had no need to be with each other.
Predictor: Postman, Neil
Prediction, in context:In a 1993 essay in U.S. News and World Report, high-tech critic Neil Postman shares his position on future technologies:”Public life will have disappeared because we did not see, in time to reverse the process, that our dazzling technologies were privatizing almost all social activities. It became first possible, then necessary, to vote at home, shop at home, listen to music at home, see movies at home. We replaced our libraries with interactive videotext, which even encouraged individuals to change the ending of stories if they didn’t like them, so that there no longer existed common literature. We replaced schools with home computers and television. We replaced meeting friends with the video telephone and electronic mail. We replaced visits to far away places with virtual reality. We became afraid of real people and eventually forgot how to behave in public places, which had become occupied almost entirely by criminals. The rest of us had no need to be with each other.”
Biography:Neil Postman was a professor at NYU and prolific writer and speaker on the negative impacts of technology and the media on society. He wrote the book “Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology” (1992). (Research Scientist/Illuminator.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1993
Topic of prediction: Community/Culture
Subtopic: Social Withdrawal/Addiction
Name of publication: U.S. News & World Report
Title, headline, chapter name: Beyond 1993
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?Did=000000005169970&Fmt=3&Deli=1&Mtd=1&Idx=1&Sid=2&RQT=309
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Garrison, Betty