Technological determinism?

This idea gave birth to the written mode of communication, which involve man ability to think abstractly and have clear, concise records of facts and history. As stated earlier in my introduction, the documentation on stones, clay, parchment, papyrus and paper catapults humanity into a literate society. Communication over distant areas became feasible instead of reliance on face-to-face communication. For instance, lengthy complex orders could be conveyed over a distance. “Audiences now can be remote in time and space, and the communicator can guarantee that the message received is identical to the one sent.” This mode brought about greater rationality and systematic scholarship in human affairs because it is easier to figure out contradictions or illogicality in writing rather that speech. Laws, regulation, information, and messages could now passed across time and space, and these technological mediums helped facilitate the process. "The effective government of large areas," he writes, "depends to a very important extent on the efficiency of communication.” This new technology assisted the person in power to control more subjects with greater distances. Also according to Mcmurdo writing made small communities into large states and states into huge empires.

Just like the oral mode of communication only a few people had access to information and only a few could write, thus resulting into a centralized form of knowledge. However the introduction of the Printing Press – an outlet of writing – seem to kill the whole process of centralized information. “The way books were produced changed as dramatically as computers today changed productivity in the office environment.” In all the Printing Press era brought out the consequences of writing on a mass scale. Printing as an outlet of written communication paved the way for what will become the most innovative development in history.

The electronic means of communication have greatly revolutionized human communication ability, with the introduction of television, telegraph, et Cetera which are able to cross time and space unlike other modes or mediums that only crossed time; it also changed or changes our way conception of both time and space. For instance a person living in Nigeria sending a massage to someone in Germany would have a delay time, however the development of the telegraph lessen that time. The electronic era saw the combination of oral and writing communication into technological mediums that reached and involves all member of the different society – the Internet –, thus resulting in the move from linear thought to a more reinforces sense of individuality and privacy.

Furthermore, to clearly illustrate my point of a technical and social driving force I will propose case studies on both sides of the spectrum. Technological determinism is reinforced by Marshall McLuhan’s idea that the medium is the message; the technology used to express an idea, is the message that it intends on sending to the audience. This notion is the backbone of many of today’s research in communications, for example Robert Hodge and David Tripp  study on “what effect does television have on youth?” Their analysis on television and children suggests that there is a technical deterministic factor between television and children since they are not the creator of the message or they are of lower class. Interestingly, Hodge and Tripp also found that children interprete messages depending on their socio-economic status, meaning that every everything we see on television has social meaning, and that there are social differences which mean that the interpretation of these meanings changes throughout the world.  Therefore reading television is a social phenomenon and while certain things, when read by people of Western culture, have certain meanings attached, someone of another social background may read these meanings completely differently. Another example that acknowledges a sociotechnical system as to do with the contruction of the bridge over parkway on Long Island by Robert Moses. Robert Moses built the bridge according to specification that would discourage the presence of buses. His reasons was to limit access of racial minorities and low income groups to Jones Beach, Moses widely acclaimed public park. Moses made doubly sure of this result by vetoing a proposed extension of the Long Island Roach to Jones Beach. Meaning on one side of the spectrum we have technological determinism towards the low class, and on the other side we have social determinism by the elite.

Our analysis on the history of communication and the case study by Hodge and Tripp proves that the driving force of a society – western society – is both social and technical. My conclusion is not reenforced only by the above historical analysis and case study it is also reenforced by scholars or historian. Scholars who take a macro perspective view on technological development in the society, tend to lean towards technology making history, while those who take a micro approach consider technology as socially driven, according to Misa. So to dissolve these common debatable perspectives Misa proposed a “Middle level” theory of analyzing both technology and the society. He illustrates his point by looking into the nineteenth century Carnegie steel company where he shows neither the demand of technology nor the high-level strategy had much to do with the advent of vertical integration. Only after a middle-level official repeatedly pleaded with Carnegie to take action did he move towards the acquisition of invaluable iron ore properties in the upper Midwest, and then almost as an afterthought.

Similarly, Thomas Hughes proposed a model/approach that seem to dissolve the old internalist and contextual approach. Hughes argues that the internalist approach leans towards technological determinism while the contextual approach lean toward a social deterministic theory, and by proposing a  “system approach” Hughes seem to acknowledge the working of both an internalist and contextual approach. In the system approach or account there are “actors” who come together to act as a whole (e.g. a bank is both a network and an actor that hangs together, and for certain purposes acts as a single entity). As a part of this it may look at explicit strategies for relating different elements together into a network so that they form an apparently coherent whole. Also according to Harold Innis, “ The profound disturbance in Egypt civilization involved in the shift from absolute monarchy to a more democratic organization coincides with a shift in emphasis on stone to an emphasis on papyrus.” Meaning social activities and technological development coherently configure the society as a whole.

In conclusion, every country for example Canada, experiences technological determinism from the United States, and this changes every aspect of our society; our media, market, Et cetera. However without our social desire the notion of technological determinism from the US would not be possible.  Based on my non-biased analysis, it is only wise to say that the changes in any society results due to its social activities and the development of technology. Therefore a socio-technical approach or system; a system composed of technical and social subsystems best describes any society. It is an approach to complex organization that recognizes the interaction between people and technology. It can also be seen as the interaction between society's complex infrastructures and human behavior. In this sense, society itself, and most of its substructures, are complex socio-technical systems. In the oral mode of communication the medium – language can be considered a technology – embedded political, economical, Et Cetera, characteristics.  Paper, stone, clay, Et Cetera also carry with them social phenomenon in the written mode of communication, now in the electronic era every individuals embed in every medium his or her own political, religious, Et Cetera, activities either to decode or encode.

                                                             Bibliography

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