Technological vs. Cultural Determinism

There are many different ideas thrown around in chapters 3 and 4 of our text.  Some of these ideas I agree with, and others I’m not so sure about. Primarily, these chapters focus on defining and providing examples of both technological and cultural determinism. After completing the reading, I find myself somewhere in the middle of these opposing viewpoints. Simply put, technological determinism is defined by Slack and Wise saying that technology is a principle cause of cultural change. Consequently, cultural determinism is defined saying that culture is the cause and technology is the effect. Essentially, this viewpoint states that as culture changes, it needs to develop new technologies to accomplish its goals.

Although I understood the reference to the famous NRA claim, “guns don’t kill people, people do”, I’m not sure that I agree with its relevance to the overall message. Guns are clearly a technology, but I more or less read this chapter thinking of modern technologies like cell phones and computers.  Also, I’d like to point out that yes, guns kill people and yes, our culture has been influenced by this type of weaponry, but who’s to say that another type of weapon wouldn’t have been created in its place.  For this particular point, I can say that I agree on the side of cultural determinism. I feel that people will have conflicts regardless of whether or not a gun is in the picture.  Therefore, whether someone is using a gun or a rock attached to a string to hurt someone, they’re going to do it anyway.  If someone wants to harm another human being with strong enough conviction, they will find a way to make it happen. In the end, it’s less about the technology, more about human will.

On a somewhat unrelated note, I found the section on technological dependence very interesting.  Although, like I said before, I read these chapters with modern technologies in mind, it is interesting to think of what our lives would be like without technology. Just sitting in my room right now, there are so many things that I can see within my reach that I couldn’t imagine my life without. For example, this laptop, my cell phone sitting next to me, the lamp across the room, etc. Even the chair that I’m sitting on is a technology. There is virtually no way to escape technology. In order to function in our society, some of these technologies simply cannot be ignored.  From these ideas, I can clearly see some points of technological determinism.

Concluding, it is evident that I am stuck somewhere in the middle of these two schools of thought.  However, I have to agree with Slack and Wise when they say that technology has become a convenient scapegoat for problems. Is technology really controlling our lives or is it just easy to pass the blame?