Mediatization, polarization, and intolerance (between environments, media, and circulation)

Mediatization, interactions and education: a classroom-grounded sketch 39 digital environment, which does not mean the simple “use” of technology, but its articulation with the social practices of edu- cation - which refers back to the first point. 2. The dual face of technology, between medicine and poison Plato, in his dialogue Phaedrus , makes one of the first critiques of the advantages and problems of adopting new tech- nologies - in this case, the “new technology” was the alphabet. Using, as he used to do, a myth, Plato narrates the episode. Theuth, a sage from ancient Egypt, one day approached Pharaoh Thamus to offer him an invention, a remedy (pharmak- ón) for memory: the alphabet, writing. With that new technol- ogy, Theuth explained, the Egyptians would never have to worry about remembering things again; once registered by writing, nothing would be forgotten. Thamus, however, declined the of- fer: that invention, the ability to record things outside the hu- man mind, would be a poison (also pharmakón) for memory; the Egyptians, freed from the need to learn, would become lazy. Writing as medicine and poison, technology as pharmakón of the mind: Plato posed the question that, two and a half thousand years later, refers to the dual face of technology in its relation- ship with culture. The answer of the Greek philosopher is still ambiguous: his master Socrates did not leave philosophical texts - his students Plato and Xenophon were responsible for recording his sayings and dialogues - and, as far as we know, he never needed anything beyond his mind and his daimôn to transform Western philoso- phy; Plato, for his part, devoted himself not only to the writing of his series of Dialogues but also left letters from which we can glimpse a little of his life and work. There seem to be, in this am- biguity, two extreme positions related to technology. If Socrates did not leave philosophical writings, Plato used writing with such refinement that his Dialogues, philosophical works, are endowed with a literary refinement not always (re)found in Philosophy. Socrates’ teaching in the streets of Athens was predom- inantly oral. Plato, at the Academy, possibly had a written cor-