Who holds the control to social change?

Does society rely so much on technology to properly function? Or does technology depend on society’s needs and ambitions to develop? Such arguments have been going on since the introduction of technology into our lives. This has given rise to the two theories we have today which are Technological Determinism (TD) and Social Shaping of Technology (SST).

To see how these two theories intertwine and oppose each other, I would like to illustrate using the technology of something the people of today have come to value, the internet.

For TD’s argument, it stresses on the internet’s impact on our lives and its cause for us to label this generation as the information age. And McLuhan would argue that the internet has extended our society’s senses to be able to connect with others, successfully breaking down geographical barriers.

Meanwhile, SST emphasizes that it is because of social factors like ambitions or materialistic trends that technologies like the internet has been created. Winner would argue that if we had no need for the internet, it would not become a prominent influence over our lives.

Sometimes, it seems as if some people view this issue as a competition of society against technology, when there really isn’t any reason to take sides.  Personally, I cannot help but think that this is another case of viewing two sides of a coin. Depending on the choices we make, we could either ruin our lives through over-dependence and maybe even addiction to technology or through self-discipline and control we could make our lives easier. After all, we cannot deny that our society has become somewhat integrated with technology, increasing our quality of life. And all this only goes to show the ever growing relationship between society and technology through mutual dependence.

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Student name: Harina Rachel Anne Aristan