Winstons criticism of Negroponte.

In the Winston’s reading, the idea that Negroponte proposes which argues that by giving third world children a small affordable laptop will help pull them out of poverty, gets completely criticised and shut down. The criticism seems quite harsh to me, when it appears that Negroponte is just trying to find a solution to a tragic global problem. However I can see where Winston is coming from when he argues that technology is not going to bring complete social change. It does seem over ambitious to claim that computers are going to overcome the huge amount of poverty which is evident in these countries, as a computer cannot bring food water and medicines. Also I personally have thought that there may be a process in which we adapt to these certain technologies, there has been a lot of different stages in which western countries have been threw before they have been introduced to computers and the internet. Maybe these third world countries need to go through these stages also before they are introduced to modernization; I mean we have obviously learnt through stages such as industrialisation so they should too. Therefore we should maybe give them the tools to reach the other stages first not just push them to the stage we are at now. Never the less I do not believe that third world countries should be denied access to a computer, the situation they are in is not the individuals fault and if we are able to access such great technology and all the opportunities that come with it, wouldn’t it be fair for us to also give them that same access. Winston’s criticisms of Negroponte have made him out to be almost in it for the money as he argues that he has just found a new market to push his technology on. Negropontes idea to me seems allot more moral than that. There are so many stories that we hear about how people have come from rags to riches because of their access to a computer, people have been able to create websites online to sell their inventions, products, services, ideas etc. This would give people living in a third world country this opportunity also. The internet would essentially bridge the gap between third and first worlds. Concurring alongside Negroponte I argue that the internet would give these people who are struggling to make a living, new opportunities to make money e.g. sell crafts on line, start a business idea, it will also give them so much information that we just take for granted, like information on how to stay healthy etc. At the present moment they have hardly any way to access the amount of knowledge that we have and I think laptops is a great way to share it with them and for them to learn so they can help themselves. Overall, I believe Winston’s criticism of Negroponte actually misses Negropontes main point, Winston fails to see how technology can bridge the gap between first and second world countries and only focuses on how it cannot. Laptops may not solve all the developing world’s problems but it will give them access to and understanding of a way of life that they have been denied for so long.