s paper's position is that Winner's seven concepts represent issues in technology's cultural baggage and that we as consumers need to recognize the drawbacks that come with technology use so that we can offset those while benefiting from the positive aspects of technology. The view of technology with respect to this position is that accepting it and using it in everyday life means taking on the responsibility to understand and address its negative aspects as well as its many benefits. The paper will discuss Winner's seven concepts and provide examples of two technologies that exemplify the positive and negative aspects of technology for society-surveillance technology and media-related technology.
The first concept, the centralization of power, is one that goes against the democratic values that many governments seemingly espouse (Winner 87). Centralization of power assumes that power will be concentrated within the heads of state or other authorities and taken away from the people, even though people are going to be the users of the technology. Winner (88) demands representation for all of the people that might be affected by a technology before the innovation takes place, and he urges that if the present social institutions cannot accommodate this, they must be changed. The benefits of centralization include ease of administration and economies of scale, but with centralization of power comes the concern of monopoly and the lack of local power. A problem with centralization is the loss of custom or tailored solutions and the need to accept a general solution for all. Centralization has the potential to make technology easier to monitor but more difficult to escape.
The second concept-that few talk and many listen-reflects the centralization of power and the political landscape. When few talk and many listen, this often means that the few who talk are given special privileges to talk and be heard, while th...