Networked Society

The process of social organization is a one of dialecticalism. In other words technology both affects society and is affected by society. Unfortunately this process cannot be put in positivistic terms, because it lacks any objective goal. Just like religion, science has core mythological narratives at its heart. Thus technology remains teleological in terms of its supposed power to liberate humanity from its powerlessness in the face of natural forces. But once again, with the advent of global warming and mass environmental degradation, we are being shown that rather than being separate and distinct from the natural world we are a part of it. Thus, what was once seen as progress can now be seen as destructive and hazardous to human health. Any attempt to control nature lead us to a deeper understanding of the extent to which we are inextricably connected to it.

I would probably be a substantivist in terms of where technology fits in the social world. In other words It has an effect on our phenomenology (perception of the world and society) as human beings. However I think this also requires a social constructivist perspective to show the multi-faceted and divergent effects technology has on different sectors of society. Part is socially constructed, part is technologically determined.

For example the internet changes the way we conceptualize time and space as well as identity and social interface. Distance supposedly becomes irrelevant; we can communicate globally without the geographical restrictions we used to experience in the past. But the problem with this analysis is, we are still limited physically, by time and space, and by the actual social, cultural and economic conditions we live in. So the “death of distance” is as much a construction as it is a reality. We are still bound by external structures that influence our behaviour and shape our potentiality.

Thus technology both determines the ways we see the world and is determined by the way we see the world. We both use technology and are used by it.

~ by jem8 on January 27, 2007.