The Effects of Technology on Man’s Identity in Knight Rider TV Show

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Ph.D. Candidate in English Literature, Department of Foreign Languages and Linguistics, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran

2 Associate Professor of Transnational Literature and Drama Studies, Department of Foreign Languages and Linguistics, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran

Abstract

This study is concerned with the effects of technology on man’s identity in the Knight Rider TV show. It investigates how the major characters of this TV show lose their human identities as a consequence of embracing technological practices which are hailed by technocratic societies as enhancing to the human race. Such an issue is knocked upon by Henri Lefebvre who sees technology as an expression of capitalist domination over humanity. In Lefebvre’s view, man’s social and cultural practices are formed by the space encompassing him reflecting a mutual relationship between man and space. With the advent of the technological age, Capitalism tends to socialize technological practices as alternatives to man’s original cultural and social practices. This issue encourages the initiation of technocratic societies which require man to cast away his human identity through annexing him to a machine. In the light of these perspectives by Lefebvre, the current study examines the effects of technology on man’s identity in Knight Rider TV show. Through tracking the phases that they pass in becoming technocratic individuals, the study reveals how the main characters give up their innate cultural and social molds to technological practices. The study shows that the main characters have been subjects to a socialization process which ultimately leads them to transform into semi-mechanical entities, which is a case pointing at an agitating cultural and social dilemma in the postmodern era. The study argues that the characters’ own aspirations for an unlimited power, intensified by the mystification practiced by capitalist leaders about the role of technology in enhancing man’s attributes, have blinded them from noticing the gradual loss of their human identities.

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References

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  • Receive Date: 26 June 2024
  • Revise Date: 17 November 2024
  • Accept Date: 17 December 2024

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