Here's the rough intro to my ICT essay. In all honesty, I'm not sure if I'm barking up the right tree here, so any sort of feedback is welcome. Think of this as the "describe" part of the Kolb cycle.
The Creative Technologies experience that happened to me for this topic wasn’t a physical experience of a single event. It was an eye opening realization. I’ve been enthralled with technology since my teenage years and have, in the background of my mind, somewhat noticed how it is negatively (and of course, positively) impacting my life. It was a thought, but I didn’t have a name for it. Then, in week 5 of our Intro to Creative Technologies class, we were introduced to the concept of Technophilia, along with Technological Determinism. Not to get too textbook-y or parrot anything back, but Technophilia refers to the mindset that uncritically accepts all technology as an answer to just about any social issue, without consideration of the root cause of said issue. I found myself relating to this somewhat as I too can get carried away in the flashiness of technology. This is, of course, the opposite of technophobia, which is the fear or general dislike of new technologies. While I am still critical of technology, I certainly find myself to be more on the technophilia side of the spectrum. This then leads into the concept of technological determinism – whereby technology is seen as an agent of social change. Its introduction changes the way we function as a society, and this is something that, according to technological determinists, cannot be predicted nor resisted. Again, this is one side of a spectrum, with the other side being social constructivism, whereby society shapes technology. It sounds rather reminiscent of the chicken and the egg paradox, with one side affecting the other, almost in a loop. Obviously, we as humans created technology, but the degree to which it is shaping and changing our social dynamic is something worth considering. And that’s when it hit me. I started to think about my use of technology, the most prevalent one being the one that practically lives in my phone for the good majority of the day – my smart phone. It’s almost such a common idea that it’s questionable whether or not to bring it up, but the argument that phones are changing the way we live, perceive our friends, family and the world is a common one to say the least. But it got me thinking, how much has my life changed as a result of owning a smartphone? And, more specifically, how much of that is due to social media? The ability to gain instant gratification by flicking open Instagram and scrolling mindlessly or using a smartphone to check one thing and winding up wasting time looking at something completely unrelated are common occurrences for me, and I don’t think I’m alone. It’s reducing our attention span, warping our world views. And how much of it is our fault? That’s where technological determinism comes in. To what extent are we being controlled by this technology, and how much can we control it?
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