MAC 325 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Technological Determinism, Social Determinism
26 Jun 2018
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Department
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Professor
Week 3-1 Baym Chapter 2: Making New Media Make Sense Class 2/13/18
Technology and Society
What is Technology?
- Tools that extend building on the human.
- Purposely broad definition.
Things v. Artifacts
- Thing: object in of itself without human intervention/ thought
- Artifact: a thing created by humans
How does tech. Develop?
- A mix of…
- Social factors
- Material factors
- Avoid extremes
Pitfalls to Avoid: Technological determinism
- Technology structures a society
- technology-> society
- Removes a lot of social/ intellectual agency.
Pitfalls to avoid: Social determinism
- Society determines what technologies to develop and how they will be used.
- society-> technology
- Technology have certain affordances
Social shaping of technology
- technology<-> society
- Technology influences our choices; our choices influence technology.
Affordances
- Capabilities technologies enable
- Stuff you can do with technology
- Technologies have certain logics that influence (but don’t determine) their use.
- Preferred, modified, and unexpected uses.
- Ex: a hammer. Does the same things better than others (putting nails in
the walls but not for writing)
Affordances in Digital Communication
- Different websites offer different affordances.
- Facebook v. Twitter.
- Preferred uses.
Critiquing Technology
- Why must we ask this question?
- Critiquing thing v. artifact
- If a thing has politics, we can critique it
- Object stands for larger power
Artifacts have politics
- But politics are often embedded in artifacts
- Intentional politics: need definition for both *
Document Summary
Week 3-1 baym chapter 2: making new media make sense class 2/13/18. Thing: object in of itself without human intervention/ thought. Removes a lot of social/ intellectual agency. Society determines what technologies to develop and how they will be used. society-> technology. Technology influences our choices; our choices influence technology. Technologies have certain logics that influence (but don"t determine) their use. Does the same things better than others (putting nails in the walls but not for writing) If a thing has politics, we can critique it. But politics are often embedded in artifacts. Artifacts politics may be outside the intention or unintentional. For the ways in which they embody or support certain forms of power. Technology choices built into websites and apps encourage certain ways of communicating. Even if you don"t use a technology, it can affect you. Past events influence for years to come. Local contingency can have lasting effects adopted/ non-adopted technologies.
