Technology & Selfhood

Writing is a technology that allows one to read the thoughts of others across space and time. Our course’s theme, Technology, is the subject-matter we will be reading to hone skills such as analysis, argumentation, and critical thinking. This does not mean that you must be a budding technologist to succeed in this course, nor will this course seek to transform you into one. Rather, this course treats “technology” in its broadest sense; from its root in the Greek techne which means “craftsmanship,” “craft,” “art,” or “rhetoric,” to its contemporary definition as the realm of knowledge that deals with the mechanical arts and applied sciences. In writing about technology we will consider perspectives across the university curriculum in order to better comprehend our relationship with our tools and to scrutinize the dynamic interaction, communication, and interdependence of different kinds of tools for various means of communication and representation. We will strive to think critically about ourselves as part of larger communities and systems by attending closely to the ways we communicate with and about others through technologies such as writing, film, and social media. In writing creative, analytical, argumentative, and researched essays we will address responsible uses of technology, the effects that technologies have on different communities and individuals, and try to answer questions like: How does technology affect us when we use it? How do technologies intersect and affect one another? What roles does technology play in our everyday lives? And what roles do we want it to play in our future?