Examples Of Technological Determinism And The Social Shaping Of Technology

Introduction Today, technology is at the center of everything. Put simply, the present world is surrounded by technology; our homes, our places of work, and so forth. Since the late 1980s, the world has been shrinking to what many have come to refer as “a global village.” This phenomenon has been made possible by globalization, which in turn has relied mostly on the advent and progression of technology. However, even though technology is everywhere, there has been little consensus in regards to its actual definition. As a matter of fact, according to Springer, when asked to define what technology is, the average individual will most definitely begin listing down technological artifacts, rather than define technology itself. So what really

However, according to PLTW, while Science is concerned with the study of the natural world, essentially the need to answer “what is”, technology is concerned with the study of the human world in a bid to answer “what can be.” According to Springer, the only way most people encounter technology is through technological artifacts, essentially the outcomes of the systems and processes of technology. There are several theorems that attempt to shed light on the sociological analysis of technology. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to compare and contrast two of these theories: technological determinism and the social shaping of technology by offering two examples of technological artifacts. The aim is to show that society does not actually get to choose what kind of technology it wants the most, and that the success of technology is ultimately compounded by societal

In both theories, there is the element of the absolute power of technology and that of nature. The force of nature in Darwin’s theory essentially creates a situation whereby only the fittest, strongest, or most adaptable species will continue to survive, while those weak or incapable of adapting will die, and hence become naturally selected. In this regard, animals that adapt develop an intrinsic advantage over those that do not, and hence a new generation of species is formed. This is not very far off from what technology determinists argue. According to Bimber, the theory of technological determinism basically argues that society evolves by adapting to technology; that by itself, technology possesses an intrinsic force or power to influence the progression of societal structures. It is this fore, just like that possessed by nature, which affords for the comparison of technological determinism and the theory of natural selection. However, according to Bimber, technological determinism as a concept is more or less elusive. This further asserted by Adler, who states that technological deterministic theorems have had a long historic controversy. Much of this controversy is due in part because there exists at least two distinct sides to the technological determinism discourse; hard and