Technological Determinism

Technological Determinism would be the idea that intrigued me most in this week's readings.

In Bertram's article: Technology as Social Practice, in which it mentioned the Technology Independence Assumption. The author contrast assumption that technology can improve education and alleviate social ills by two corollaries of this assumption:  "technologies are tools with fixed meanings" and "people are agents independent of their technologies", which obviously exempt technology from intentionality. 

The author clarified his idea that technology and social practices are mutually constituted. As he said: "A technology is a system of people, texts, artifacts, activities, ideology, and cultural meaning." It is obviously problematic to consider that technology and social relations are independently constituted and evolve independently of each other. 

It comes to me that when the shooter uses a gun to shoot someone, the gun itself is neither good nor bad, but the one who used the gun has intentionality which leads to evil things happened. In this sense, technologies are by no means merely tools with fixed meanings but are instead value-laden. 
What occurred to my mind after reading this article would be the discussion of technologies are value-free or value-laden. 

There is a debate of tech companies claimed that their software or apps are not designed for intentionality. However, it is undeniable that through the software, powers are also embedded in it inevitably. In previous years, Zhang yiming, founders of tech companies: Bytedance (TikTok's parent company), have claimed technology neutrality. But the content created or published on these social media platforms like hate speeches, discrimination, and power has influences on social practices.

Another article: Moore's Law and Technological Determinism, which push me further to reflect on technology obsession. With social media and all kinds of apps, I have to admit it is impossible for me to stopping look at my phone even for several hours. I am used to checking my emails, swiping new posts, and chatting with friends. I think the picture below call well explained how I am so dependent on social media. 

Finally, I would like to use the quote by Oscar Wilder to express some optimistic view here: We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.  These reflections on technology, in a way, help people use them more wisely and thoughtfully.