Critique of Technological Determinism Theory

Critique of Technological Determinism TheoryNameInstitutional AffiliationDate
Technological determinism theory highlights that the technology is a great tool that has the ability to shape different aspect of the society. Such aspect include the way that we think, our interpersonal relationships, values and how we learn and conduct ourselves in the society. In the most recent time, the world is going through a number of technological changes in terms of the internet technologies, modern structures, computers, mobile devices and social institutions. In my view, the usage of technology lies on the hands of the people who are intended to use the technology. In this paper, I make an argument that technology itself does not at all impose itself on the people but the human beings or the society is the one responsible for coming up with the appropriate ways of using these technologies. The arguments contained in this paper will be drawn from different articles on the topic. Different examples of technologies mentioned in the articles by the authors will be utilized to make the argument.
When technological changes take place, human beings are the one who are responsible for developing these technologies to make sure that they match and meet their needs. Perhaps as a way of illustrating this, we can take the instance of the telephone development. As Millar and Schifellite (2014) points out, telephones were developed to be used in business communications only. The telephone manufacturers looked out for different ways of prohibiting the people to use the telephones while communication interpersonal affairs. However, as time went by, people started using the phone to carry out their personal interactions away from business matters. The people who came up with the telephone technology were looking out for ways of limiting its usage. The authors also point out that farmers in the rural areas who were neglected by the telephone manufacturers had to find an appropriate way of improving their farming activities through the use of the telephones. In fact, they developed their own ‘phone culture’ CITATION Mil14 \l 1033 (Millar & Carmen, 2014). In the article, Dignity, Violence, Geopolitics and The Arab Uprisings Castells (2012) notes that most of the Arab uprisings were organized around different groups which heavily relied on the internet to communicate to their members. The groups learnt that by using the internet, they would be provided with autonomy and this autonomy made it easier for them to organize their activities. The internet provided a great platform where they can air their grievances and increase democratizationCITATION Cas \p "p. 104" \l 1033 (Castells, 2012, p. p. 104). From the above two illustrations, there is one thing that comes out clearly. In both cases, human beings were responsible on how they would put these technologies into use. Human beings are still at the center of the interpretations of these technologies and not the technologies themselves.
Human beings have the ability to do away with a certain technology if they realize that it does not match or meet their needs. In some instance, the reactions of human beings when they are against a certain technology can turn out to be violent. Volti (2009) gives an example of the modern steam powered machine that was rejected by the people since it replaced a number of job opportunities for the Chinese. The steam powered machine improved the production of the silk cotton within the industry but soon the people realized that it was not doing them any advantage since it took away jobs. As a way of expressing their dissatisfaction, the people stopped supplying the industry with the cocoon silkwormsCITATION Vol09 \l 1033 (Volti, 2009). In addition, the government can decide the type of information that can be consumed by the citizens by coming up with the appropriate laws to censor the operations of the governmentCITATION Zit08 \l 1033 (Zittrain, 2008). The author notes that with the appropriate censorship, human beings will consider slowing down rather than coming up with ways of doing away with the censorship measures that have been put in place. The author also discusses that even though the censorship measures have been put in place, human beings will still find a way of doing away with the censorships. This involves the development of an application that seeks to address the issue by breaking the barrier that has been imposed by the governmentCITATION Zit08 \p "p. 108" \l 1033 (Zittrain, 2008, p. p. 108). In both cases, the human beings have the choice of formulating or putting in place appropriate measures to stop the spread of a certain technology if it does not work in their favor.
The technological determinism theory also makes an assumption that the society is passive in terms of consumption of information but this cannot actually be the case since the society is always actively involved with the new technologies. In the article, Society of the Query, The Googlization of Our Lives, Lovink (2011) discusses the development of new technologies is intended to make the people to interact and get to know each other. The author also notes that people are no longer addressed as an ‘anonymous mass of passive consumers’ but rather ‘actors’ since they utilize the different media channels to express themselves CITAT...