First, let me say that there is a massive amount of informing, analyzing and theorizing happening in the chapters of Culture and Technology that we were assigned to read over this weekend. Each takes us through a different school of thought regarding technology and its relationship to the culture that uses it, eventually ending at the Actor-Network theory. I found this theory to make the most sense for how I perceive the world. The Actor-Network theory in a sense blends the perspectives of both technological determinism and cultural determinism to lay the blame for the interworkings of our world on both technology and the culture it comes from. According to Slack and Wise, the Actor-Network theory is based in the idea that technology cannot be labeled merely as a tool used by humans nor can it take full responsibility for its effects. Both technology and humans are defined as “actors,” which are elements in our culture that affect the space around it, make others dependent on it and translate the world in a way that it can understand it (118). Furthermore, all actors function within a “network,” connections throughout space and time that are needed for a single moment to happen.

            From this theory, the way I understand it is that technology cannot be made without humans, who make it with specific intentions. However, new purposes for technology are often found, meaning that the technology itself is affecting how our world works. Not to mention that it shapes how we function on a regular basis—travel, communication, control, sanitation, etc. To me, the cell phone is probably one of the best examples. First, humans had to create it; it was not just born from another piece of technology. Second, in order for a cell phone to function, a human must pick it up and use it. However, once humans begin to use the cell phone, the cell phone begins to change their way of life. Not only can they contact each other quickly, but also at any moment, due to the portability of the phone. People begin to make last second plans because they know they can contact each other at a moment’s notice and create new languages of text lingo that become common phrases throughout the culture. Then people begin to want other technologies in portable means, so humans create applications to add to the technology of the phone, and so on and so on. Technology then must be an actor as humans are and neither humans nor technology can be separated from the other. It is a codependent relationship wrapped up in networks that shape the culture of the time. This is really the only way I can make sense of the role of technology in our world.

            However, I do wonder if our culture at large will ever be able to get over its decidedly technological determinist language, with its habit of blaming the technology instead of the network. Can we change this biased language? And how would we go about doing it? How would a massive change in the thought processes of our culture effect how we live our everyday lives?