Technology
Technology and Social Change
HSB Grade 12
Challenge and Change
Unit 2
What is technology?
The creation of tools, objects, or methods, that
extend both our natural abilities, and later our
social environment.
Anything from a coffee cup to and ipod can be
viewed as technology.
What was the greatest invention of
the millennium which has impacted
the most change?
The printing press in 1450
This invention took the process of
reading out of wealthy circles and
monasteries and into the hands of
the ordinary people
Books became more affordable and
became the method of choice when
circulating new ideas
Technology bring with it a degree of
social change…
• Technology challenges the
nature of change. Does change
begin with the individual or the
technology?
• Technology has strongly
affected the way societies are
designed and how they keep
changing
• People receive their
information more quickly
• People can communicate in
different ways
• Negative and positive
consequences to the
introduction of new technology
Technological Determinism
Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929) – first proposed theory
Technological Determinism – a view that social change is
initiated by technology and not necessarily the individual.
Sees invention of a particular tool, such as the computer,
as taking on a life of its own after it has been introduced
with society simply reacting to the new technology. The
impact and effect is out of our control once introduced in
society.
“We shape our tools, and and tools shape us ”
-Marshal McLuhan
Coping with Technological Change –
Positive or Negative???
Using Technology for Social Change
• Many groups use social
networks for mobilizing —
Getting members out
– to an event
– to sign a petition
– to donate for a cause.
• focuses on organizing — creating an educated
constituency of people who can motivate others.
• Social networks are an integral part of an
organizing strategy, because communication
and engagement are what they're all about.
New Technology = New Stress
1.
Technology can have a negative side effect. i.e freedom to access
information such as pornography, hate propaganda, etc.
1.
Keeping up with the speed of technological change
– future shock disorientation brought on by technological
advancements, creating a sense that the future as arrived prematurely
– hyperculture refers to the overwhelming rate of change in modern
technological societies
1.
Overdependence load
– Technosis an overblown attachment to or overdependence on
technology
Theory on Cultural Lag
William Ogburn –analysis the effects of technology and the environment. Developed
the theory of Cultural Lag.
Cultural Lag describes the process of integration to technology.
Acceptance of new technology goes through three phases:
(1) Invention
(2) Discovery
(3) Diffusion.
If all three are verified then technology has been successfully integrated into society.
Technology introduces change that temporarily destabilizes society and, until society
adapts, a period of transition occurs.
Ogburn identifies that there are a group of people that impede change that
technology may bring by resisting and rejecting technology. Members who oppose
technology are referred to as “Luddite”
Resistance to Change
“Luddites” is a term taken from the name of
people who belonged to a secret society whose
goal it was to destroy new textile machines
during the early years of the Industrial
Revolution in England, 1810.