THE SOCIAL NATURE OF
TECHNOLOGY: THE
TELEPHONE
I203 Social and Organizational Issues of Information
Information Systems as Agents

Solving routine information processing
 Ordering
a pizza…
 Finding information on a specific website…
 Suggestions based on preference tracking (product
brokering)…
2
Personal Information Brokers

Social network-based information
ordering
 Inbox

2.0, Microsoft’s SNARF
Dynamic music DJ’s
 iTunes,
etc
3
Human versus Bot “foibles”

Human
Change our minds on the fly
 Abandon “rules” when it might hinder progress or larger
goals


Bots
Fairly blind to complex social trade-offs and competing
goals
 What is wrong with a price-maximizing and rational bot?

4
Obedience and tacit knowledge in
information systems


Humans may have a specific goal, yet the
achievement of this goal may be a product of many
different (and seemingly irrational) actions.
How does one model such behavior in a bot or
other information gathering/processing system– or
should we even try?
5
A new problem?

Bots and other software tools echo
machines and industrialization in
earlier eras.
 Doing
mundane tasks for humans
(printing press, assembly line
machines)
 Representing humans (voicemail, junk
mail)
6
Why the Telephone?



An information technology (and
communications media) with a welldocumented history.
A clear example of the interplay
between practical technology and
social world.
Ubiquitous; even without historical
accounts we all have an
understanding of what it is, what it
can be used for, how it has
7changed.
Society and New Technology

8
“… to silence these doubters, Bell and Watson
planned a most severe test of the telephone. They
borrowed the telegraph line between Boston and the
Cambridge Observatory, and attached a telephone
to each end. Then they maintained, for three hours or
longer, the first sustained conversation by telephone,
each one taking careful notes of what he said and of
what he heard. These notes were published in
parallel columns in The Boston Advertiser, October 19,
1876, and proved beyond question that the
telephone was now a practical success.” (Herbert
Casson, 1910)
“This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to
be seriously considered as a means of
communication. The device is inherently of no
value to us.” – Western Union, internal memo, 1876
9
Some theories for technological
development and change



Technological Determinism
Symptomatic Approach
Social Constructivism
Note that we will go into determinism and constructivism in more
depth next week– for now we want to understand why Fischer must
defend his use of the user heuristic model.
10
Does society determine technologies, or do
technologies determine society?

11
The ‘Star Trek’ problem:
But Seriously…


12
The problem we face is very real in our
understanding of technology and information
history: Does technology/IT primarily affect society
and happen as natural course of development, or
are technologies/IT emergent from social processes?
Put differently, do technologies develop “under
their own immanent logic”?
Technological determinism
Technological change comes from outside
society as part of an autonomous scientific
development

Technologies have their own inertia, totally
separate from the influences of people.

At the extreme, technology causes social
change

Impact/Imprint

13
Examples of Determinism
Lynn White
“The history of the use of the horse in
battle is divided into three periods: first,
The invention of the stirrup
that of the charioteer; second, that of
the mounted warrior who clings to his
led to Feudalism.
steed by pressure of the knees; and
See: White, L. Medieval Technology and third, that of the rider equipped with
Social Change. Oxford: Clarendon
stirrups.”
Press, 1962.
14
More Examples of Determinism
The automobile created suburbia.
See: McShane, C. Down the Asphalt Path: The Automobile and the American City. New York,
NY: Columbia University Press. 1995.
15
Consequences of Technological
Determinism


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At the Macro level, technology causes social and
historical changes.
At the Micro level, technology affects social and
social-psychological processes as individuals use
technology and tools.
Symptomatic Approach


Technologies are expressions of culture
Technology and material goods are manifestations of
Geist


17
Geist: “Indwelling spirit of man; guiding mind or
conscious intelligence”
Tends to assume homogeneity across various
technological developments
Examples of Symptomatic Approach


18
People are tied to new information technologies (i.e.
mobile phone, email) and feel lost and lonely
without them
The train and the automobile are part of American’s
expression of freedom and change
Social Constructivism



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19
Struggles and negotiations between different parties shape
the history of technological development
Innovation and technology is shaped and created by the
unique conditions of each society
Sort of the logical counter-argument to technological
determinism: reality cannot be “discovered” as if its already
out there
A common argument is that same technology has different
forms, histories, and uses in different societies
Examples of Social Constructivism

History of radio frequencies, dependent on social
and political structure of various societies (i.e.,
countries)

Development of lights and electricity

Peer and collaboration models of learning
20
The clock as an example

A clock is a device that allows us to
standardize our measurement of the
concept of time, and relay this
information visually/audibly/etc.

What would a technological determinist
say about the development of the clock?

…A proponent of the symptomatic
approach to technology?

…A social constructivist?
21
Towards a more inclusive understanding of
technology and society

We need to ask several questions (Fischer):

Why and how do individuals use a
particular technology?

How did using it alter other (perhaps less
immediate) aspects of life?

How does the collective use of a
technology and the collective responses to
it alter social structure and culture?
22
Telephone as Practical


Will help families manage household tasks
Will help in case of emergency
“Speak directly into the
mouthpiece keeping mustache
out of the opening.”
23
The Telephone as Commonplace



By early 1900’s, telephone increasingly common–
and expected communication for emergencies.
Slowly became a new way for businesses to
advertise.
Expectations in some businesses (doctors, lawyers,
etc) created need for telephones.
 “externalities”
24
as a consequence of use
Telephone as a Social Technology


25
…but you could also
use the telephone to
have personal
conversations.
A real shift on the
part of industry,
users, and the
technology itself.