Technological determinism is a body of reductionist theory that argues that changes in technology are responsible for cultural and social change. However, this is a fact has been discussed by experts all over the world. The evidences, as well as the reasons why this statement is considered to be truth will be demonstrated.
Technological determinism can be proved in many ways. The best way to look at it is through communication technologies. With the help of communication technologies it is easier to disclosure the effect it has on the cultural and social patterns. The other reason is that the communication sector is absolutely dynamic (Lin, 2008). Therefore, the changes that occur in it can be used to establish the consequences for the society. The communication sector is also exhaustive and holds a wide range of possibilities because it is present in the economy of every nation in the world. The use of communication technologies will help to analyze the changes that technological advancement can have on people.
Image Technologies
Image technology is one of the technologies in the telecommunication sector that has largely influenced the culture and social status of people around the globe. Between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, various significant technological changes have occurred. News are not only printed, but are available online; there have been improvements on the transportation sector, industrialization and urbanization as well as in the sphere of entertainment. However, image technologies were the most significant. Lithography was responsible for the increased circulation of photographs. The Paris exposition took place in 1901 and it was at that time when the power of motion pictures was discovered (Flichy, 2007). It had a colossal influence on the lives of the people. It was considered with special reference to social and cultural lives of people. First, social patterns were completely changed. People did not wait for a long time to hear something new. Instead, they always had first-hand information of events. This resulted to a great change in the social patterns of people.
People in the society were also affected by the image technologies in the sense that there were developed new aspirations in the sporting and entertainment sectors. This is because there was an increased focus on stars and celebrities. This was mainly in telegraphs, print and photography. Most of the young people were influenced by such philosophy and had neglected the most important things in their lives and focused on their newly found dreams. In the aspirations that they developed, there were major changes that occurred in their nature. They started wishing for things that were far from what it was before. For example, the music industry became a major industry for attraction of people. The film industry also came to attract numerous people (Jordan, 2008). The establishment and development of places like Hollywood in New York took place in order to favor the development of the film industry. Besides, the cultures of the people involved, as well as the audiences had changed drastically. The perspectives in life were also altered greatly.
Image technologies were the most influential in the developing countries because they were covered in ignorance before their occurrence. It meant that the people in such nations were not so interested in what was happening in outer world and the reason for that was that they had no ways of getting in touch with the outer world. However, these developments came to favor their exposure to the outside world (Leonardi & Jackson, 2004).They could get access most of the activities that were occurring in more developed countries. It caused major changes in the perspectives of people, their behaviors as well as cultural beliefs. It was well seen through the modes of dressing, behaviors in the streets, enlightenment of the public, and demand for the fulfillments of their rights by the government. There was also increased celebration of the innovations that were carried out by humanity (Leonardi, 2012). People who stood out in the community were brought to the eyes of the public to be recognized. Every person who engaged in innovations and inventions was well-known to people all over the world. The world started the process of developing to the global village that it has lately become. This is one solid proof of the effects that technological change has on the cultures of people.
This transformation in technology always has the people to whom it poses most of the advantages. For example, the manufacturers of products were able to manipulate people’s dreams. It was done to generate the amount of sales. That was unfamiliar experience for people as people believed in genuineness and promotion of people’s talents. However, these technological changes were changing the attitudes of people towards the subject. People started worrying on how they could maximize on the money that they make from different products.
The desire to be rich resulted into the loss of values in the society. Furthermore, it is not the only factor that can be considered to support this fact. There are many other ways in which people in the world have been affected by the changes that have occurred in the telecommunication industry. For example, shopping changed from necessity to enjoyment. In the past, people only used to enjoy using limited amount of money and ways (Leonardi, 2012). The mass media has used pictures that encourage people to buy fancy things, instead of doing it out of necessity. The most serious part of these facts is that they are inevitable.
Electricity
Another technological advancement that changed the lives of people, from a social perspective is electricity. The first area that electricity has affected is communication. In the past, communication could not be separated from transportation. They were two areas that had been permanently interlocked (Pinch & Bijker, 1984). Most of the means that were used for communication involved the use of transport. However, electricity changed all the structure. These became two independent sectors, though they had some relations. For example, the navy used semaphores to transmit signals between each other. This was whenever there was need to drive important messages for their missions. For land based semaphores, the most developed ones were found in France (Smith & Marx, 1994). In 1840, the electric telegraph had changed the communication between people in various parts of the world. After the invention of this telegraph, railway lines could be more developed. It was easier to communicate on any problems and challenge in the railway lines. By 1900, a global network had developed, as a result of telegraphs.
The use of telegraphs did not last long because it was overshadowed by the use of telephones. Telephones have demonstrated its values to the people. At first, these were resources that could only be used by the governments and businesses due to its high cost. However, the development of it ensured spreading the device to all the parts of the world. The issue of culture change and social values have occurred as a result of it (Smith & Marx, 1994). Political and economic news could now be transmitted to the relevant parties with ease. The methods of communication have been facilitated. Entertainment press now came into existence. Therefore, the private life of famous people is no longer a secret. However, the transmission was mostly experienced within more developed nations. In return, other nations received the information that was transmitted later. This functioned as a major catalyst to the changes in the behaviors of people in such nations. They began to copy the western traditions and intermingled beliefs and values. This even led to the loss of originality, as well as cultural values (García-Sánchez & Pérez-Bernal, 2007).
In the past, most of the sectors of the economy existed on their own. It was hard to merge two sectors of the economy. This is because the means of communication were extremely poor at that time. The transmission of information between the sectors was difficult. However, the innovation of electricity had facilitated that process. Communication became simpler to occur. This saw the merging of different aspects in the economies of various nations. For example, it was possible to merge business and innovation. This is a combination that is much more productive than any of them that is on its own. This is because business depends on innovations in order to make dynamic changes that can cause great effects in the business world. Electricity made this happen. In this, more and more products were manufactured in the business world. This ensured that the people in the world could have access to a larger variety of products. Some of these products greatly altered the cultures of people (Ceruzzi, 2005). This means that they changed some of the aspects in their lives to fit in the new world that was being showered by all these new products. This functions as a better proof of the technological determinism theory. . However, the changes in technology are a direct measure to change cultures and social values of people (Helgen & Moore, 1996).
Technological determinism is a theory that can hold numerous controversies. This is because there are people who are against it and on the contrary support it. However, the essay above has provided numerous evidences to support the fact that the theory is relevant. For this reason, it can be concluded that the technological changes that occur in the world are responsible for the social and cultural changes within the societies. Similarly, the social and cultural changes that have occurred can be used demonstrate the developments that have been done in the technological sector.
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