"Has led to" and "Inevitablility"

I found the Williams reading very interesting, especially together with the Nardi/O’Day chapter from earlier this month about inevitability.

Both readings have made me really stop and consider how I think, not only about technology but about everything. The discussion of "inevitability" in the Nardi/O'Day reading, which I discussed earlier on my blog, made me realize how often I have heard people use that phrase in relation to technology.

This reading made me stop and look at how often people say that technology has "led to" a change or that it has had "effected" society. I'm guilty of it too. The comparison of the various statements on page 11 especially brought to the forefront how familiar these phrases are, and how insufficient.

After reading, I thought about how I always thought that new technologies like the internet, broadband, social networks, had all "changed" society and how it works. It is true that society has changed, but as Williams said, you have to think whether the technology brought about a change or whether the change brought about the technology. I think this is the case with the internet - it was developed for a specific need, first with DARPA and then with universities. Out of that it developed into a wider social tool. Websites like facebook and myspace have "changed" how we keep in touch with each other, but really they are responses to the already changing technology and communication systems in place.

Then again, I don't think it's fair to rule out technology changing society as well. It may be true that sites like facebook and myspace were responses to the way people used technology to communicate, but they also exacerbate these ways of communication to the point that people's communication and social skills both adapt and evolve into these new methods and no longer are as suitable for other methods of communication. The same can be said of the inevitability of these systems coming about, as I discussed in the past blog entry.


Together, the two articles have made me look around with fresh eyes, and I plan to keep this in mind in the future when looking at news and new technologies.