Technology, Politics, Society

Reach in your pocket, and you'll find a cell phone, with many capabilities that enable you to stay connected to other people via telephone, email, chat, and the list could go on.  Open your book bag and you can grab out your laptop, which only will enhance your ability to keep in touch with the world.  This type of scenario is common these days not only among college students, but is widely growing throughout different age groups.  With this capability of being connected, it brings out points in the readings from last week about the political and social implications of this growing phenomena.

In the article written by Winner, one of the ideas he brought about in the reading was how computers and that technology in general has changed how we interact within and affected the retail sector within our community.  Cell phone stores are popping up all over the community.  People in all ages have embraced the use of cell phones, even shutting off their landlines, completely relying on their cellular phones.  No longer do you see phone booths on the street or outside of buildings.  Interaction between people within the community has evolved to where people can talk or text whenever and wherever with no limitations.  Another example within the community of how technology and computers have changed retail business is the rise of Red Box DVD automated rentals.  One dollar rentals that you can get any time of the day and that you can return when is convenient for you has driven several movie rental stores out of business.  Winner wrote this article as a political idea and political stance that is looked at by some as a way that the Internet, computers, and technology should be handled.  As my group discussed this article, we did not think that it was the way we would the technological world run.  I did find a lot of the points that Winner brought up as valid and a great insight into the changes that have occurred and that are still coming for technology and society in the future.

In the article about Hackers Ethic and their way of looking at how technology should be run, it brings out their idea of how anyone can be involved in technology.  Catch is, not everyone has the privilege to access technology, hence dividing people.  But they feel that information should be free and open with no restrictions.  After reading and discussing with my group their beliefs, I feel that the hackers are almost anarchist.  They don't want anyone in charge, regulating, but in reality whoever has the most technology and most influence would have the most power.

The Magna Carta reading was intense, but held some of the ideas of democracy in its theory of how technology should be handled for society.  It talked about the marketplace and how it drives the society to change technology.  Like in the article by Winner, one subject brought up in the Magna Carta was the idea of how the new technology has replaced old methods, questioning which was better.  Adding to the other examples of how technology has shaped and changed society, is again back to the cell phone and its use for the releasing of information to a wider public faster than old methods.  Just last week as i was walking to class, I received a text message from a number of someone I did not know.  After opening the message, I read about the Utah legislature proposing to raise college tuition.  The text went on to encourage me to gather with other college students at the Capital the next morning at a certain time to protest it.  Whoever sent me the message used technology for political reasons.  Before the use of cell phones, it would have had to been done by flyer, word of mouth or television.  From the modern use of cell phones and texting, messages can be sent to a large group of people in an instant.  Using technology to try and inform people to engage them in political action is one more example of how society is using the technology to their advantage.

With the different theories of how technology should be handled as it affects society and its interaction with our everyday activities, it is hard to know which way is the best.  While each of the articles had valuable methods, no one of them is ever going to be perfect.  It is true that technology is shaping how people interact one with another.  While some of these advances help connect communities, others are dividing society from true interaction from each other.