Bo’s BGSU Blog

The article “Lest We Think the Revolution Is a Revolution: Images of Technology and the Nature of change” and Harry Potter and the technology of Magic” draw some similar comparisons in the message the authors are trying to present. Both of these articles relate to technology and how it shapes the world around us. In Harry Potter it talks about consumer technology and how it affects young children and adults. In the Revolution article the author writes about technology helps Americans make their lives better as well as other countries who America gives aid to. Both of these essays are organized in the same manner. The essays are broken into two halves the first half of Harry Potter the author shows some negative flaws to Harry Potter and consumer technology and the second half is showing support for the Harry Potter. In the Revolution essay it the first half it shows how Technology plays a major role in the life of Americans and how technology is uses to aid foreign countries. In the second half the author shows how technology can be dangerous. Selfe writes, “how to increase our own cultural profits at the expense of others, how to take more effective advantage of need and difference whenever we identify them, and how to reduce the cultures of other people to inexcusable simplifications” (790). Selfe then describes ways in which people take advantage of technology to benefit them. This can be compared to “Harry Potter and the technology of Magic” when it elaborates on the negatives affects of Harry Potter on commodity culture. The technology involved in Harry Potter persuades young children to beg their parents to buy them Harry Potter accessories and books. These are both two examples of how the essays reflect negative to technology. These articles each have support for technology as well which are Americans help foreign countries through technology and how Harry Potter gets young children involved in reading which is good for kids to be doing.