Culture & Technology (& The Internet) - How it's used and what it all means

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Hannah Brasier

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CULTURE + TECHNOLOGY

CULTURE Social organisation Customs and traditions LanguageArts & literatureReligionGovernment Economics

TECHNOLOGY WritingPrintRadioCinemaTelevisionInternet

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KEY QUESTIONS

“How do we live with technology?” “What impact does it have on our lives?”

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LECTURE STRUCTURE

1. Technological determinism

2. Cultural materialism

3. Poststructuralism

4. What this means for you?

Technological Determinism

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TECHNOLOGICAL DETERMINISM

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“Do technologies have intrinsic properties that shape the cultures into which they are introduced?”

TECHNOLOGICAL DETERMINISM

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“Technology is the agent of social change” (11)

TECHNOLOGICAL DETERMINISM

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“the key to a medium’s cultural effect is not found in its content, but in the way it convey informations”

TECHNOLOGICAL DETERMINISM

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Dickinson Sachs, Aaron. “Watching Netflix — Critical Commons.” Video. In Media Res: A Media Commons Project. N.p., 2 Dec. 2013. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.

TECHNOLOGICAL DETERMINISM

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PROPERTIES OF NETFLIXevery episode of a series is released at the same time we can access Netflix on numerous devices

there are no advertisements

CULTURAL IMPACT

binge watching“shatters communal watching”everything becomes a continuous flow of information

breaks the monopoly of broadcast & cable TV, rentals & advertising

TECHNOLOGICAL DETERMINISM

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PROS

gives insight into the specific properties of technologies

TECHNOLOGICAL DETERMINISM

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CONS

cause-and-effect thinking“treats technologies in isolation”reductionist

Cultural Materialism

CULTURAL MATERIALISM

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Cultural factors, such as political, economical or governmental factors, determine the implementation, format and content of technologies.

CULTURAL MATERIALISM

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The Internet is commonly considered to have “profound real and potential effects on social relations, everyday life, culture, politics, and other social activities.”

However, Internet censorship allows us to see how culture has greatly impacted the effects of the Internet on culture.

Warf, Barney. “Geographies of Global Internet Censorship.” GeoJournal 76.1 (2011): 1–23.

CULTURAL MATERIALISM

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“Internet Users (per 100 People) | Data | Map.” The World Bank. N.p., 2016. Web. 10 Apr. 2016.

CULTURAL MATERIALISM

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“The Intranet [in North Korea] provides a connection between industry, universities and government. Its role seems to be to spread information, rather than for commerce, entertainment or communication”

Kim, Tong-Hyung, and Youkyung Lee. “Look At How Bizarre North Korea’s ‘Internet’ Is.” Business Insider. N.p., 23 Dec. 2014. Web. 10 Apr. 2016.

CULTURAL MATERIALISM

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PROS

views technology in relationship with those who use itsees the diverse nature in how technologies workembodying

CULTURAL MATERIALISM

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CONS

cause-and-effect

only considers cultural factors, what about us as individuals?

Deterministic Theories

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DETERMINISTIC THEORIES

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“I write about entanglements of technology and culture, how technologies enable the making of certain worlds, and at the same time how culture structures how those technologies will evolve, this way or that. It's where philosophy and design intersect.”

Bratton, Benjamin. “We Need to Talk about TED.” The Guardian 30 Dec. 2013. The Guardian. Web. 10 Apr. 2016.

DETERMINISTIC THEORIES

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http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/30/we-need-to-talk-about-ted

DETERMINISTIC THEORIES

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“Instead of dumbing-down the future, we need to raise the level of general understanding to the level of complexity of the systems in which we are embedded and which are embedded in us. This is not about "personal stories of inspiration", it's about the difficult and uncertain work of demystification and reconceptualisation: the hard stuff that really changes how we think.”

Bratton, Benjamin. “We Need to Talk about TED.” The Guardian 30 Dec. 2013. The Guardian. Web. 10 Apr. 2016.

Poststructuralism

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POSTSTRUCTURALISM

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“A diverse set of theoretical approaches (emerging from the challenge to structuralist thought in the late 1960s) that refutes the existence of a universal underlying structure determining social or cultural behaviour.” (28)

POSTSTRUCTURALISM

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“Technologies, like rivers and streams or developments in the arts, also flow. Like rivers and streams, they are produced by particular contexts and change as these contexts change. Like rivers and streams, they flow into each other, accumulate in larger rivers or split into deltas.” (34)

POSTSTRUCTURALISM

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A ‘machinic' thought perspective would study technologies beyond their form to see how they function in various contexts.

POSTSTRUCTURALISM

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POSTSTRUCTURALISM

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many-to-many

technologies have multiple faces

intentionality only goes so far open to change

embodying

What can we do with online media?

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WHAT CAN WE DO WITH ONLINE MEDA?

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“How do we live with technology? “What impact does it have on our lives?”

WHAT CAN WE DO WITH ONLINE MEDIA?

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What are you doing online?

How do online services allow you to do this?

Are there limitations to what you can do when you are making online?