[Response to “New Media in Everyday Life” from New Media – A Critical Introduction by Lister A.]
As I read, this article brought up three interesting assumptions:
- That culture, everyday life, individuals and households are materially and conceptually distinct from technologies – that the former ‘adopt’ technologies for instance or suffer the ‘impact’ of new technologies, and hence that distinctions between subject and object are absolute
- That technologies are socially shaped but that society is not technologically shaped
- That human activity – in the form of social, historical or economic forces, or subjectivity and identity – is the sole motive force or agency in everyday life and culture. (Lister)
The way I see the three points is this:
- We, as humans have no choice but to accept the technology that surrounds us. If we don’t, we will be stuck in a rut, really. Everyone these days is using technology in some way or another (whether it’s communicating, whether cooking up a meal, or just sharing an opinion, technology is everywhere – we have no ways of escaping it…. That is unless you go live on an uncharted island.)
- We, as humans, who developed all these technologies, we did so to improve our lives, to make it easier. All of our tools are – as the word calls for it – TOOLS. Tools to better our lives (and in some case, worsen). We use telephones to communicate with people, email our bosses and co-workers about meetings, and use microwaves to make lunch.
- If our society were any different, our technologies will reflect that. That’s a given, in my eyes. If we didn’t have a need for phones, we won’t have them. If we didn’t have a need for guns, we wouldn’t’ve invented them in the first place, and so on.
Basically, technology is there to assist us in things that we would normally have troubles with. Even in the old days, very primitive technology existed. And instead of calling such things “technology”, just call them “tools”; tools which we use in our every day lives – such as pencils and paper when we take notes at school.
Thanks for reading,
xANex
