Consumer Technology

My attention span is short and my time to write is even shorter. My topic of rant today is, once again, the woes of society and the perils of freedom. Specifically, we need an education system focused on critical thinking rather than the usage of technology.

My focus is on the public education system because the education system is an area of major influence on peoples’ lives which is in the governments’ control.
I juxtapose critical thinking with learning technology skills because the former is displaced by the later by our economically oriented educational policies, and the former is clearly more important for making rational, sustainable choices.
I have written before about why and how our current education system is economically focused, but I would also like to show how this has ingrained consumer values in our culture.

Without an adequate understanding of logic, of human nature, or of the history of societal change, we are ill equipped to handle the responsibility of freedom. To recite hackneyed rhetoric, freedom requires responsibility, maturity, and understanding. In a society that prides itself on freedom, special attention must be placed on the education of the people that equips them to make well-informed, mature decisions. Without an adequate education which teaches people to think critically and makes people vigilant of the tendencies and tactics of people in power to concentrate their power, we cannot assume the people will make reasonable decisions.

A loosely regulated, free-market system is probably the best economic option we have, but it is not without serious shortcoming that our education system should make us clearly aware of. If we are not aware of the shortcomings, we become victims of the shortcomings.

The economic growth ideology of the Western nations has created a consumer culture with consumer values which are at odds with sustainable cultural values ranging from conservation to intellectualism. Consumer ideology is deeply rooted in our western societies. It is an integral part of our identities, our self-esteems, and our purposes in life. We build our individual identities on brand names, on cleanliness, on newness, on trendyness, on the kinds of cars we drive, on the clothes we wear, on the technological gadgets we own, and the music we listen to. If we do not buy ourselves nice, new things, then we feel shabby. If we have an old car, then we feel poor and low class. If we have slightly worn clothes, then we feel shabby. If we do not have the latest gadgets, then we feel boring and old-fashioned. If we do not have enough money to buy all of these things, then we feel like something is wrong with us. If we make less money than our peers, then we feel less capable and inferior.

There are natural tendencies in human nature that make us particularly vulnerable to consumerism. Marketing science continues to find new ways to play our emotions and urges to buy more of everything. The admirable efficiency of capitalism unfortunately applies to marketing as well. We are born and raised in an environment of marketing influences that pushes us to (and beyond) the limits of our abilities to consume. We have very little, if any, educational preparation to resist these influences.

A technology focused education system not only does nothing to prepare us to resist marketing influences, it actually promotes marketing-sensitive values. Technology is focused on newness. Newness requires new consumers, new markets, and more consumption. A high-tech society is a high-consumption society. For new technology to be developed there must be a consumer demand. We are taught to value technological advancements. We are taught to embrace, without question the value of consumer electronics – of newer, faster, better technology.