Social Shaping of Technology

           In chapter two the social shaping of technology is defined as a middle ground between technological determinism and the social construction of technology. This perspective explains that people have the power to change both technology and society but that also that machines have a hold on us. The consequences of technologies arise from the social qualities that new technologies have to offer as well as the way that people use the elements of technology. Baym explains that people are not questioning new technologies anymore as they are becoming domesticated in society. These technologies then become a part of the daily ritual and are no longer seen as causes of change. This perspective explains that the technologies are not the cause and the people using the technologies are not the cause but that both of them together are creating the cause. “People, technologies, and institutions all have power to influence the development and subsequent use of technology (p.45). “

            Katherine is a typical teenager in modern society. She has her social media accounts on her phone which is causing her to experience all of the anxieties that center themselves around social media. Katherine feels separated and nervous when her cell phone isn’t within reach because she might just miss out on something that could be the topic of conversation at school the next day. She finds that social media is a way of validating herself and her status within her friend group much like every other teenager who has social media. Katherine uses social media as a way to gain self-confidence. If she gets X amount of likes or comments on certain photos posted on Instagram or Facebook then she feels as if she is being accepted by her peers. She admits in the article that she ends up deleting a lot of the pictures that she takes instead of posting them because she fears that they won’t get her a lot of likes. When her dad tries to monitor her texting and calling on her cell phone she admits that she doesn’t ever call anyone and usually her conversations occur via snapchat which is something her dad doesn’t really understand so she gets away with communicating on that platform.

            I chose to write about this perspective because I feel that everyone who has a social media account is guilty of turning to an array of platforms for acceptance. There are unwritten rules of Instagram where in order to get the maximum amount of likes you should post your photo between 4pm-8pm when people get off work. We find validation in the amount of likes we receive on a photo of ourselves that really doesn’t represent who we are on a daily basis. We try to create a new persona to be viewed online to make it seem that we are far more interesting than what we actually are. Checking and participating on social media platforms are becoming a part of everyone’s daily routine as a way to achieve acceptance.

                                       http://www.relatably.com/m/great-memes-for-instagram 

Assignment #2: Social Shaping of Technology

In the article written by The Washington Post about a young girl named Katherine Pommerening and the influence and interdependences the technologies she posses has on her everyday life. Within the article, Katherine spends countless hours looking down at her screen and in particular at memes on her mobile phone. She is just 14 years old and has become dependent on social media and other interactive outlets to stay connected.

In the text Personal Connections in the Digital Age, written by Nancy Baym, she relays this idea about a certain anxiety that is created the this new screen age. Children and younger adults are being more and more influenced by digital media and its interactivity. Things such as relationships, authenticity of content and people moral in general become subordinate to these virtual realities and create a social anxiety when theses channels are removed.

In Chapter 2, Nancy Baym talks about the social shaping of technology and how certain technologies shape new histories and outcomes. With many popular technologies there are certain expectations of how these technologies will be used based on their initial design/makeup. With this being said, this doesn't necessarily define the way the user will use that specific product, how they will experience it or if it was used for its original purpose. Baym writes "Machines do not make history by themselves. But some kinds of machines help make different kinds of histories and different kinds of people than others" (51).

In reference to the article written by Katherine we can see that things like memes and other social media outlets (i.e. Instagram, Snapchat) have become mostly recently popular in last couple of years. It can become a social standard to carry your phone everywhere you go and to be constantly updating, receiving and sending some form of communication to the online world. Baym describes this point in the text by stating, "social media platforms engineer particular kinds of sociality even as their users develop norms around their use" (51). Katherine allows herself to be consumed by these ideologies and what its like to be constantly consumed by digital media. Technology becomes the regulator as to what is being shaped within this new "screen age".

Anxieties Surrounding New Digital Media: Social Shaping

Social shaping as discussed in Chapter 2 describes how culture and society adapts and revolves around the introduction and continual use of new technologies. According to Baym, "Social media platforms engineer particular kinds of sociality even as their users develop morns around their use (van Dijck, 2013)". This highlights how social media platforms in particular, such as Instagram and Snapchat are responsible for indicating how people should live their lives, and what should be most important to them. In the article "13, right now: This is what it's like to grow up in the age of likes, lols and longing", it describes Katherine Pommerening's habits and mannerisms concerning her phone in great detail. The young teen is constantly opening and closing social media apps on her phone in a short amount of time. When she finally peers her head up from her phone screen, she realizes that she is home and that duration of time has escaped her while she was so enveloped by her phone and the virtual profiles on each platform.

There are several anxieties concerning the young generation and social shaping due to technological advances. One anxiety is the ability to waste incredible amounts of time without fully engaging in one activity. For example, Katherine is constantly opening and closing the apps on her phone on the car ride home, and isn't fully absorbing any information from a single app. Instead, Katherine's focus for each app is limited as she moves onto the next without really thinking- almost as if she was bored in a matter of seconds. A second anxiety is regarding Snapchat is the ability to document ever second of your life, with the mindset that your "friends" really care to see it. The anxiety revolves around both parties, the person posting the story, and the person viewing the story. The person posting the story feels the need to let her "friends" know what she is doing at all times, in hopes of reassurance or jealousy. The person viewing the story is blindly viewing someone's day without really absorbing the information. As well as this person can feel left out or FOMO (fear of missing out) for not participating or experiencing the same event as the person who posted the story. People always try to make their profiles as "cool" as they can to provoke jealousy and a false sense of admiration.

An important ideology to mention, is the fact that before the creation and introduction of social media platforms or new digital media, people were not subject to feeling this way. This is technology shaping our society and our cultures without us even being aware that it is happening. It moves too fast for us to stop, and in the blink of an eye, the entire generation has become so dependent on mobile devices, as well as so concerned with likes and followers- things that never used to matter. People are becoming obsessed with virtuality and are no longer living in the moment.

Technological Determinism and the Anxieties Around New Digital Media

                Technological determinism as discussed in chapter 2 of Nancy Baym's book brings to light anxieties about new media technologies changing us as individuals by shaping how we as a society think, feel, act and operate as a whole. New media technology in this sense is rapidly changing how we communicate with each other and can be arguable making us "dumber". This is one of the central arguments of technological determinism and it is a theory as old as time. These concerns can date back all the way to ancient Greece, the example used in the book of Socrates and his thought about the modern alphabet he states "this discovery...will create forgetfulness in the learners' souls, because they will not use their memories...they will appear to be omniscient and will generally know nothing...having the show of wisdom without the reality" (pg.28). The concern is that with the creation of a new communication technology other forms of communication will become obsolete therefore people will lose the ability to use them properly.

 I personally argue that this is the case now with new media technologies that allow for people to be constantly connected over the internet. We are becoming so fixated on the digital realm that we lose our own sense of reality and how to communicate with the people who are actually around us. Also it is argued that media technologies are making us dumber by too much multitasking. Instead of focusing on one conversation or task we are able to multitask with multiple forms of communication over the internet and we are spreading ourselves thin which has been proven to be unhealthy to our memory. It is also argued that social media technologies are not just spreading our mental capacities thin, the "useless babble" these technologies produce are not helping either.

        

      In relation to the article about Katherine Pommerening, anxieties about how new media technology are changing the way people are communicating for the worse is prevalent in the way Katherine and her friends communicate with each other and how she communicates with the people around her. You can see this immediately in the first few sentences of the article

" She slides into the car, and even before she buckles her seat belt, her phone is alight in her hands. A 13-year-old girl after a day of eighth grade.

She says hello. Her au pair asks, “Ready to go?”

She doesn’t respond, her thumb on Instagram".

Immediately we see Katherines sense of the space around her being completely lost, she is not participating in reality even though there is a person right beside her attempting to have a conversation with her instead she is in her virtually constructed reality. Later on in the article it discusses how the internet is where all of her friends are "hanging out" therefore that is where she wants to be as well. This sentence shows how media technologies are constructing our social and cultural norms. She does not seem the slightest bit interested in hanging out with her friends in person, instead she feels the need to be "hanging out" with her friends over the multiple forms of social media used by her and the millions of other people doing the same. Anxieties about being a part of this online social circle and not missing out on anything that is happening over these multiple forms of communication is obvious in this article about Katherine.

                I chose technological determinism because I strongly agree with the argument that these technologies are spreading us thin and making us dumber in a sense. I catch myself multiple times a day switching from app to app on my phone not committing to one, having multiple shallow conversations that have no purpose because the other person is as well only half into the conversation and in turn am missing the world around me. These technologies are shaping the social and cultural aspects of our lives and until you really read deeper into it you do not realize how much social media technologies control us and the way we interact with other people and the world around us.

The Domestication of Technology

The Domestication Of Technology

 Technology has become deeply immersed within society today and with it has brought forth a great deal of anxieties for young adults, especially young girls. The “Screen Age” paints a picture of present day society’s 13 year Katherine Pommerening, constantly on her phone and obsessed with sites such as, Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat. She strives to attain a strong presence on her social media in order to maintain a steady following. Always making sure she uses the right filter, and posts at the right time of day, in order to reach the most “likes” or “views”.

 The term domestication of technology “concurs with social shaping in seeing both technology and society as influences in the consequences of new media…[and how they are] embedded deeply in the practices of everyday life” (Baym 52). New technologies are constantly being brought into young adults lives. Furthermore, the angst that comes with new technologies and social media is unavoidable. 13 years olds are documenting and sharing every detail of their life in order to gain a positive response and if they don’t get one, they delete what they posted. 

Pommerening’s social presence essentially controls her identity. She has effectively created a place for people to view her life through an edited lens. This in turn can make someone very anxious, as they must continue to keep up their appearance.

Baym states, “ as technologies are integrated into everyday life, they come to be seen as an offering a nuanced mix of both positive and negative implications” (Baym 53). A positive is that it allows for people to easily communicate with one another from any location. One of the major downsides is the stress and obsession one attains with their phones, it becomes their lifeline and if lost the individual becomes lost.  

 This theoretical framework can be applied to not only Katherine Pommerening, but to many adults today. Technology has become a tool that dictates ones actions in life, and it is safe to say it has become a very important tool in my life. Looking back to when I was 13, I had a Hot Pink LG Razor, and it was solely used to get a hold of my parents. I remember being able to go on the Internet maybe twice a week and sitting at the computer watching and listening to the dial up connect. Today, you see 4 year olds crying for their IPad and 13 year olds with hundreds of followers.  As technology has increased its presence over the years, it has also begun to immerse itself into younger generations lives.

I found a really interesting article on time.com based on the book "American Girls: Social Media and The Secret Life of Teenagers" By, Nancy Jo Sales. It is about how social media is impacting young girls lives. Its a short read so check it out if your interested!

Link: 

http://time.com/americangirls/ 

Social Construction of Technology

·      It is evident that Katherine’s friends have constructed a their own way of using the technology in order to socialize. They are using features within an application such as Instagram to create a social space, which wasn’t the original intention of the application or the technology. Because of where this social space was created and how the technology functions, Katherine’s anxiety can stem from a flurry of notifications on a constant basis where if she isn’t keeping up with what is going on she will feel like she is missing out. 

·      Things such as when to post a picture, what filters to use on a picture can provoke anxieties with this new media. It is as if you are creating a brand new reputation for yourself outside of what people who know you in real life understand about you. If people associate you with traits such as dull or boring, social media is a new social space for you to redefine yourself and to make a new impression. All of the same anxieties that are found when making a first impression are found through the new media as well.

·      The reason why I chose social construction of technology as a framework for examining Katherine’s situation is because it can easily be applicable to not just her situation but everyone elses. I feel like it is common to know of a scenario where someone acts or seems different on social media then in real life.