Assessment 3Critical Essay Example

Assessment 3Critical Essay Example Assessment 3Critical Essay â€" Essay Example > Technological DeterminismTechnical determinism refers to the view that technology influences, establishes and changes basic aspects in relation to human behavior and society such as people’s way of thinking, their actions, and values as well as how people carry out their interpersonal relationships. Technology comprises of things like codes and systems for interpersonal conduct and social institutions, basic tools, contemporary computer and web technologies. In other words, technological determinism attempts to demonstrate that, technical advancements, mass media or technology in total are the key movers in social change and history. This essay will discuss in depth technological determinism theory and present an argument against the theory. There have been a number of interpretations of technical determinism with different perspectives. However, all the interpretations have two universal concepts in common. The first idea argues that, the advancement of technology follows a pat h which can be predicted and traced but which is largely past political or cultural influence. The other idea is that, technology has consequent impacts on the members of the society which are natural instead of socially adapted or generated. This is because; the society systematizes itself to back up as well as advance technology after it is introduced. Strict supporters of the theory do not think that technology’s influence varies on the grounds of the extent to which technology is or may be utilized. Technological determinism views technology as a source for each human activity rather than as a bigger range of people’s activity. As a given technology is improved, its design is likely to dictate the conduct of the users of that technology, consequently lessening human agency. The most prominent kinds of technological determinism have been characterized as billiard ball strategies whereby technology is viewed as an outer force which is brought into a certain social circumstanc e, generating a sequence of ricochet impacts. Rather than accepting that, a given community or culture interrelates with and also influences the kind of technologies used, technological determinists maintain that, the various applications of technology are mainly established by the framework of individual technology. This means that, technology’s functions follow its form. Technological determinism concentrates on cause and effect relations which are a focus normally linked to scientific clarification. Any study of communications technology ought to acknowledge the challenge of separating causes and effect. It encompasses reductionism which intends to lessen a compound whole to focus on the effects of a single aspect on another aspect. From this view, the cause is technological innovations while the effect is change of behavior, ways of thinking and interactions among members of the community. For instance, in analyzing why romance books are being read more than other types of b ooks in the society, it may be argued that, it is due to the discovery of the ideal binding aspects that are instituted by publishers. Technology determinism views are divided into two broad categories which are hard and soft determinism. Hard determinists see technology as advancing at a very high rate independent of social concerns. Under this view, it is alleged that, technology generates a collection of strong forces which act to control human social activities alongside their implications. In addition, the view maintains that, individuals organize themselves to respond to the requirements of technology and the result of that organization is past the individuals’ control or the individuals are not at liberty to choose in relation to the result.