Response on technology in society from Bruce & Hogan reading

A line from this article which really surprised me and shaped the way I read the rest of the article fame from page nine, suggesting the audience think about how technology is used to accomplish goals and how those decisions can liberate or oppress a society. I think at this modern age, technology is moving so rapidly forward that there is no question whether it is a positive or negative transformation - it just happens and we adapt as a society. As also mentioned in this article, society starts to accept new technologies, as done over centuries, and sometimes new items just become tools of everyday living. Think about how some strange thing we used as a kid (maybe like this mechanical pencil right next to me) has become so routine we no longer need to distinguish what kind of writing utensil we need - this is simply a 'pencil'. How has this integration to our society either liberate or oppress us? Are we free to think whatever we want about our comfortabilty with tools, there is no second guessing why we are using it or how we came to be? Or are we oppressed because we do not have a choice - technology enforces standards?

This is a little bit like the computer in schools example from Bruce & Hogan - teachers now expect any homework outside of class do be done on the computer, assuming everyone has access to a computer. Perhaps in inner-city schools or rural locations this is still not the case. Those communities might resort to a community location, such as a library, to access a word-processor while so many others have multiple computers in their own homes. Even though technology is moving forward, it is requiring people of all different classes to do the same when those resources aren't always available. This is oppressive because class mobilization won't be possible without skills to move, and without the tools to obtain those skills, it is still a setback. However, liberating, is the institutions which encourage the underprivileged to obtain those resources whichever way possible (maybe this is seen through financial aid?).