ASSIGNMENT

Answers of Assignment Questions



Answers of Assignment Questions

Question 1: Using Writers For and Against the Concept of “Technological Determinism”, Access the Validity of the Statement That IT Is Radically Changing the Social World. Use Various IT Solutions And Products To Illustrate Your Arguments.

Technological determinism is now strongly challenged by advances in the sociology of technology. The concept of technological determinism is largely the result of work of Marshall McLuhan while studying the relationship between media and culture in England. In his work, society and individuals are shaped by the media and the technological advancement.

Technological determinism assumes that technology is the factor that will impact on all levels. It transforms the society as a whole but also impacts on the organizations and institutions. It will also change all the social interactions and even people. For example, proponents of this approach will say that, in the past inventions such as writing, printing, the railroad or television created a rupture so, they have totally changed society. Today, the revolutionary role of ICT (information and communication) and in the future, new inventions in turn will shape the future of human society and its institutions.

In the era of the Internet, it is easy to see that information technology is a perfect example of McLuhan's technological determinism. The invention of the Internet itself has not determined the new reality of "the global village", but a set of socio-economic, technological and policy that have influenced its development and its impact on our society.

The usual definition of emerging science and technology are linked with the notion of technological determinism. Thus, both are unbiased perspective, which views technology as an instrumental tool set, and from the cognitive considered applied science, it is conceivable that social change tool place with the technological change.

In the substantive theory, technology is a new form of cultural system that restructures the entire social world in order to establish significant control. This system works through the imposition of new rules, which do not take into account the existing human and try to impose the supremacy of power and wealth as a form of value to society through technology. Politics and morality are outside this context. There is no technological rationality in the sense of what is valuable for human beings, but only, useful and productive.

The development of production technology provides a smooth and continuous profile rather than a profile of discontinuities. Therefore, the predictability of the technology is supported by the continuity of its development; technical progress has always seemed predictable. In fact, some scientists are willing to make common predictions about technological future; others have already done with varying results, but with a vision based on past achievements (Robert 2003, pp. 5).

Considerations that support the faint determinism allow the analysis of why the same technology does not cause the same effects in all societies and open reflection on other important factors that allow media coverage of technological effects on society. This approach is consistent with the technological determinism, since ...