OLOGY in its proper place ...
a little while ago I had these remarks in my inbox - and am looking forward to cleaning that out - instead moving some of the material I might like to look at again, here ....
I think it is worth while making a distinction between "technology" and "technomena" - I will explain - and put forward a new term I hope will seem to those who think about it, to be reasonable and useful.
TECHNOLOGY must surely be a phenomenon in parallel with those similarly named - psych, socio, anthrop ...ology in each case the ology meaning a KNOWLEDGE about the topic area mentioned (the mind, the society, MAN,....). These terms are used metaphorically sometimes ("the psychology of a criminal is that..."), but such metaphorical uses are visible as such and do not detract from the main scene - that psychOLOGY is the science of and or knowledge of (how) the mind (works).
Using this precedent, TECHNOLOGY must refer to the KNOWLEDGE and science concerning how 'technical things" (techne) function. The things themselves (in the case of the latest highways and byways of communication) include the many gadgets - smartphones, (presumably also other idiotphones by comparison) , other means of internet delivery and access, etc, and I suggest these THINGS best be called TECHNOMENA. This fairly clearly combines the 'techne' part with the tail end of the word "phenomena" which focuses on things.
It will be useful to think of any given technomenon in regard of its place along a scale of value of the application of a technical development. Here, I do not find a suitable word in Greek for the good/useful and the bad/harmful ends of a continuum; but Hebrew, which lately has borrowed many words from Greek and elsewhere) has a continuum of QUALITY it calls Eichut; Tov is a word for Good in itself, so Eichut Tovah (Eichut is feminine) is the good end of the spectrum of technomena and at the other end is Eichut Ra ('bad in quality'). Such a quality spectrum could apply to various phenomena but in the world we are dealing with here, of the technomena of communication this gives us a possibility of referring to techneichut tova alongwards to techneichut ra.
Where, on this 'techneichut' scale do various gadgets find their place? There might be general agreement that smart phones are markedly towards the techneichut tova end of things; (I have not mentioned yet, that the smartphone is quite compelling (addictive?) for its owners and it may just be that with this addiction and the access it affords to various 'sites' lessens a need that such users might otherwise discharge by taking chemical drugs).
