Derya Kitapciyan (14838)
VA533 : Technological Determinism vs. Cultural Materialism
Today, in the 21st century, there is a more rapid technological development than ever before. New
technologies are constantly improved, enhanced and restructured to increase the quality of products
that could presumably suit the lives of citizens better. However, what is more important is that these
products consume the daily lives of people, without citizens even realizing that they are surrounded
and constantly consuming such products.
In the following paper the dichotomy between technological determinism and cultural materialism
will be discussed, highlighting the interplay using references to daily life observations of how
technology is immersed in determining ones cultural life and vice versa.
When the term technological determinism was first coined in the 1920s by the theorist Thorstein
Veblen, it was based on the premises of industrialization during which a rapid growth was
experienced in technological capacity of businesses and factories, which subsequently lead to
influencing social policies (Murphie & Potts, 2003: 11- 12). A basic definition would be that
technological determinism is an approach which identifies technology as the central causal element,
the agent, in the process of social change (Croteau & Hoynes, 2003: 305 - 306). This perspective
comes with the tendency to perceive technology as an independent, autonomous factor which is in
no way influenced by social pressure and/ or needs, and therefore runs its own course of
development (Murphie & Potts, 2003: 12 - 13).
While the technological determinist approach analyzes technology as if it has come into existence
on its own accord, cultural materialism makes sure to place the technological developments into
their social and political context (Murphie & Potts, 2003: 17).
HOW TECHNOLOGY AFFECTS CULTURAL LIFE (VICE VERSA)
To evaluate the effects of technology on cultural life I consider it necessary to look at several
different technological inventions separately that have been invented years ago but are still in use
today, if not enhanced.
The first groundbreaking invention, in my opinion, that we can still see in use today, is the
telephone. This invention made it possible for people to converse over long distances at any
moment in time, of course only when the person on the receiving end has access to a telephone him/herself as well.
Over a significant period of time, highlighted by technological enhancements and developments,
the telephone eventually was turned into a mobile phone, which is currently the most important
object in our daily lives. The mobile phone now makes it possible to contact anyone, anywhere
from any place at any particular time of the day.
The effect of this advanced technology on our social (cultural) lives, is that we have become
accessible 24/7, but we have to ask ourselves whether the excessive use of mobile phone services is
the product of the advanced technology (technological determinism) or whether the excessive use of
the product has developed out of the need of society to contact one-another (cultural materialism).
In my cultural/ personal life I use my cell phone a lot, sometimes even on the verge of being
addicted to it, as for why I use it so often it is because I find it to be the easiest way to contact
friends and family members and to stay updated about their current situations usually
spontaneously, especially now that I’m on exchange. Disregarding technology, communicating and
staying in touch with friends and family is a social need. Traditionally, in the olden pre-technology
era, this need was satisfied by visiting one another in person. However, as soon as technology
enabled long-distant calls, and now even provides mobile phone services, the need to socialize is
still there yet we do not necessarily feel the need to visit the person physically.
Derya Kitapciyan (14838)
VA533 : Technological Determinism vs. Cultural Materialism
In this particular case I would say that the social need and the technological enhancement are
complementary to each other, rather than one forcing the other to come to exist. This meaning that
we, as human beings, already had the need to socialize and that the technology was developed
accordingly to satisfy this need, yet at the same time the established technology triggered an
obsession within people to make use of the technology regardless of whether they need to or not.
The second most important invention is the Internet. Nowadays, we can see how the Internet
has come to replace age old traditions and acts, which can be looked on as both good and bad
developments to come to affect our cultural life.
This counts especially for the younger generation who, sometimes branded as digital natives, grew
up in a time period that belongs to the digital era (information age). With the introduction of the
Internet to the public, just like it was the case with the introduction of the telephone, we soon found
ourselves able to access any kind of information on every imaginably possible topic from places we
would normally have difficulty to access. The sudden information-overload was not the only
product of the Internet, it also enabled instant messaging with distant friends and family member
(and strangers) and more recently the Internet has become a carrier for more advanced products
such as applications (for smartphones and tabs) and games.
In this case, however, I do feel as if the Internet technology has brought around social change.
I grew up in the ‘90s and for a large part of my childhood, the only kind of information, music,
movies or shows I could access were the products I could access by going to the library, reading
actual books or buy cassette tapes to listen to music. Nowadays, I see that my 11 year-old sister
does not enjoy the same digi-free childhood I experienced, instead she grows up in an environment
which is increasingly digitalized and globalized. The Internet has managed to cramp every product
into bits and bytes, so that books, music and movies can all be enjoyed from the (dis-) comfort of
your screen, yet there was no real social need for this product to come and dominate our cultural
lives. Instead, what happened was that with the increasingly accessible Internet, official institutions
such as schools, started to set higher expectations for the works students hand in. Students are
expected to browse long enough and good enough to find reliable sources. This doesn’t just count
for me as an university student, this is also expected by my sister’s elementary school teachers.
Currently, I would say that the technologies discussed above are the two main technologies
at the moment that would characterize the "global village" which McLuhan predicted. The most
important characteristic of these technologies however is that they enabled a time-space
compression in which transferring and obtaining information is no longer bound to geographical
locations, distances or time (Thussu, 2006: 59). Based on my personal observation on the Internet, it
could be easy to say that technological developments are the agents of social change, but I wouldn’t
agree with the statement myself simply because new developments wouldn’t last long in an
environment that is not ready for such changes, or does not feel the need for such technologies. An
example for this are probably the recent developments in Africa, where instead of an increase in
landlines (telephones) there has been an increase in mobile phone usage.
Concluding, I would say that rather than technology influencing cultural life, or cultural/ social
needs influencing technological development, these two realms are really more intertwining.
Derya Kitapciyan (14838)
VA533 : Technological Determinism vs. Cultural Materialism
Bibliography
Croteau, D., & Hoynes, W. (2003). Media society: industries, images, and audiences (3rd ed.).
Thousand Oaks, California: Pine Forge Press.
Murphie, A., & Potts, J. (2003). Culture and technology. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Thussu, D. K. (2006). International communication: continuity and change (2nd ed.). Rydalmere:
Hodder Education.