Perspectives of Social and Technological Interaction - Post # 4 - Week 5

In the second chapter of Personal Connections in the Digital Age, Nancy Baym organizes four perspectives of how technology and society interact. The four perspectives are as follows:

Technological Determinism

Those who follow this perspective believe that technology enters society as a force of change that humans must adapt to. There is nothing to be done except change to fit into the new world created by technology. Advocates of the idea that the use of fast TV film cuts leads to short attention spans follow the ideals of technological determinism. Those who believe that violence in video games causes violence in gamers follow the ideals of technological determinism. I could never see myself among the ranks of this perspective. There is far too much interactivity in today’s media to ever feel helpless against it. There is a pressure to adopt and adapt to any new technology, but it is not a necessity of life that one does so. No one ever died from refusing to join Facebook. There is always a choice.

Social Construction

This perspective is the exact opposite of the first, as it believes that technology is at the mercy of society. The creators and users are the cause for change in technology, and the citizens are the cause for change in society. This viewpoint is far more appealing, but still too black and white for my liking. There are many who do not have any effect on the technology they use, other than the act of using it. For example, many people play video games without supplying any sort of feedback to the developers or modifying the game to meet their own ends. In this way, they do not effect the technology at all. They use it, but it is not changed through their actions.

Social Shaping

The ideology behind social shaping is that technology and society influence each other. Humans make the technology that changes the way many of us live. The human-made technology is perfected by users, and once again affects how we use the software. This feedback loop can be experienced in any form of media, and is proof of the shared influence of technology and society.

Domestication

When technology “fades into the woodwork” and becomes just another part of life, it has become domesticated. This is the idea behind domestication, the fourth perspective examined by Nancy Baym. This perspective incorporates the others by stating that technology changes us, and then fades after the process of alteration is complete.

If one were to combine the last two perspectives, I feel that it would be the most accurate. Nothing truly fades away, though. It takes on a new form, an improvement on the last model. It goes into the woodwork because we are more concerned with where the technology will take us and where we can take the technology. This shared progress is the definition of humanity’s explorative nature.