Results tagged “technology” from Technology and the U.S. Experience

I am not sure if I should cut out some sections in my paper.

I've moved my topic to narrow it a little bit more. I'm going to focus on the peer to peer file sharing companies versus the music industry and how the music industry wants to shut down those sites. I will try to argue that the object of the peer to peer sites is a good one and that illegal music sharing that occurs is not actually as harmful to the companies as they would have us believe.

I've narrowed my research paper to what oil companies say they're doing Vs. what they actually do, and how much they spend doing it.

I am not completely sure what person I want to use as an interview for my research paper.

I have decided to write about technology in golf and how golfer's abilities are undermined by the new technology that they are constantly bombarded with.

I've been doing some research, and I've come across some interesting things that might help narrow my thesis.

I'm thinking about changing the focus of my topic to something more like:
The internet and progress in communication technologies has often been considered a bad thing for popular music and the music business, while in fact it has had a beneficial effect for independent artists and created a more diverse musical culture.
What are your thoughts on this topic?

I think this is a better thesis:Since the Cold War, technology has been the underlying cause for war between the U.S. and other nation-states.

I am still trying to decide whether or not I should argue that technology is the cause of war or is this too bold of a claim? Any ideas on how I can incorporate technology on an international level as a symbol of power for countries?

After reading both Marx and Winner's opinions on technology, I think they would both support my research topic because it emphasizes a few strong points of both of their arguments and examinations of technology.  

In Marx's article, "Does Improved Technology Mean Progress?, he discusses the shift in beliefs from the view that technology and technological improvements are a sound judge of American progress to the more recent skeptical standpoint that presents a more negative "view of technological innovation as an index of social progress" (65). Shifts have also occurred from an Enlightenment belief that science and technology worked towards the goals of liberation from political oppression, towards a technocratic stance that that "science-based technologies are in themselves a sufficient and reliable basis for progress" (76).

 

My research topics both have to do with forms of technology and their affects on society. One looks at the effects of violent TV and videogames on children's levels of aggression, and the other examines how drastically methods of communication have changed with the introduction of the Internet and cell phones, and how they've made relationships much less personable. Marx would definitely argue that all of these forms of technology-TV, Internet, video games, cell phones-may not necessarily be marked as positive changes in society. Yes, each of these innovations has its upsides to the advancement of society, but each can also have detrimental effects. Although I haven't picked which topic I would like to study, with either one I plan to examine those negative effects of either aggression or less personable relationships. Mark would see this as a quality argument, since his entire piece discusses why Americans have made the shift from Enlightenment to technocratic and how.  At a certain point of technological advancement Americans began to examine the motives behind these innovations, and realized that they can't always be used as an index of progress in our world. Mark states, "only by questioning the assumption that innovation necessarily represents progress can we begin to judge its worth" (77). Although innovations that have enhanced media and communication are extremely impressive and can be valuable, their possible negative affects on society are what I plan to explore through my research paper.

Thesis: The advance of musical technologies has caused people with unique musical talent to be thrust into the backdrop of popular musical culture.

    Based on Marx's claims and arguments in his essay, "Does Improved Technology Mean Progress?" I believe that Marx would find my thesis to be a good example of what he wants to emphasize....
    Winner would probably want me to think about whether or not it is truly the technology to blame or actually the situations in which the technologies were developed...