Week 1-2 | Technological Determinism and Human-Agency
New Media is so pervasive and ubiquitous in everyday life that it is becoming invisible. The four readings by Nancy Baym, Terry Flew, Mark Deuze, and Zizi Papacharissi and Paige L. Gibson introduce New Media and begin to discuss the issues and concerns over privatization of self in a society that is so encircled by New Media and Social Network Sites. Discussed are the issues of Technological Determinism, where people fear advancements of technology are taking control of us and we will no longer have the power to think critically for ourselves, instead of ‘using it’, we will be ‘used by it’. The parallel of that is an over-emphasis on human agency, where people have the power to invent and control technologies completely. These issues arise in all stages of new media, with the advancement of new technologies and concerns for things society simply does not understand yet.
It is interesting to consider how people view technology in different ways and the extremes of these views. It seems that, as Nancy Baym writes, “the more you use them, the more they use you, and the more you are influenced by them.” In my experiences, this seems true for the many people I have seen, who are addicted and controlled by technology – especially social media – and the way they seem to have little time spent without the use of these media. New Media is so invisible and influential to us that, according to Nick Carr, it seems to be taking over our brains and changing our ways of thinking and interpreting, “I can feel it most strongly when I’m reading. Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy… Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do.” I feel I can most definitely relate to what Nick Carr says; my attention span, as I’ve aged and technology has developed, has dwindled. I find it difficult these days, to even immerse myself in a simple academic reading for University without having to read aloud to make sure my mind doesn’t wonder to the trivial things of life. It’s difficult, these days for students to study with so many distractions around and it seems that New Media could be creating barriers for study and learning as the youth of today ages and grows in a more technological, mediated world.
Though, in saying that, it is difficult to deny that technology and New Media has allowed us (as humans) to intellectually grow and develop. The advancement of technology has allowed new media and digital tools to be readily available for highly accessible information and research, as well as the development of new ideas and concepts.
With both these arguments, there are always the exceptions. Maybe it is not what the technology does to us or what we do with the technology but how we react to it and how we feel, ourselves, about what is happening with New Media. People evolve based on our technologies and we grow and change as the world does. It’s about how people react and not how the technology forces us to.
1. Papacharissi, Zizi and Gibson, Paige L, (2011). Chapter 7 : Fifteen Minutes of Privacy : Privacy, Sociality, and Publicity on Social Network Sites. In Trepte, Sabine and Reinecke, Leonard, Privacy online : perspectives on privacy and self-disclosure in the social web, (pp.75 - 89). Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.
2. Flew, Terry, (2014). Chapter 1 : Introduction to New Media. In Flew, Terry, New media, (pp.1 - 17). South Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
3. Baym, Nancy K, (2010). Chapter 2 : Making New Media Make Sense. In Baym, Nancy K, Personal connections in the digital age, (pp.22 - 45). Cambridge: Polity Press.
4. Deuze, Mark (2011). Media Life., Media, Culture & Society 33 (1) pp.137-148.
