Critical Social + Technical Perspective
In his TEDxTokyo presentation, Kentaro Toyama states, “Technology only magnifies human intent and capacity. It can’t substitute for them.” Dependent on the intent and capacity, that of good results in spread of virtuous news globally and that of corrupt has the power to destroy and cause such chaotic aftermath at such an excessive speed. Technology creates opportunity and spread of greater knowledge, but it also creates wider gaps between societies. Impoverished countries don’t have the opportunity of the good fortunes: the privilege of the internet at your finger tips, in addition knowledge and expertise will have a lot to do with your accessibility to prior literacy. Technology is only proficient as its user. Improvised countries need other resources than just the latest technology. They possess high tech gadgets, yet are unable to feed themselves or their families. Unfortunately, technology, especially through social media platforms creates an extreme sense of superficial notions of which less privileged countries are unaware. As the rest of the world climbs to new heights, these countries are left to sink into lower levels of poverty. YouTube may create some access to residual income for them; however, the amount of money it costs them for simply Internet Wi-Fi connectivity is costly. What happens when you have zero access to this power of the future? Should the Internet be a human right in and of itself? Can cell phones truly help end global poverty? Do kids in the developing world need the newest technology? Tackling social issues by use of technology is rampant. Statements like this and of what technology can do in the developing world are pretty broad: is “Twitter really changing the way we live? Does the Internet democratize access to information? Is Social networking transforming our learning process and speed? “The internet changes everything.” Does the Internet truly change everything? On many levels, it has brought societies much closer/better connected than ever, but as societies individual norms, this is quiet the contrary.
“Each of us is simultaneously an individual person and a global publisher.” Toyama states that we use technologies ranging from PCs to mobile phones to cameras to custom electronic devices and that their hope in studying affects of technology and its access was to see whether they could put a dent in poverty by using technology. The issue of poverty runs much deeper than access to technology. The social structures overall must be drastically revamped to put a dent in poverty.
