SOCIAL SHAPING

Digital communication combines components of communication done in face to face practices with those of writing.  Digital communication blends components  of both written and verbal communication while providing the opportunity to not walk away from the conversation or not respond to a letter. Displayed in the article about Katherine Pommerening, as all her friends are in her phone a good portion of her social life takes place through her phone, technology is shaped to seamlessly fit into your social life. I am able to easily catch up with friends I haven’t physically seen in months because their lives are communicated to me through technology.

The anxiety discussed in Bayms chapter of technology influencing humans is displayed through Katherine’s use of the word “we” when describing how she likes the colour blue. Katherine uses “we” to describe that her liking of the colour blue is approved by her online observations of Jennifer Lawrence, Gigi Hadid and Sprite. Katherine’s use of “we” highlights the influence digital communications has on society, however it is not a one way influence as the technological determinist believe.

                                              

On Instagram and Facebook we are able to digitize our emotions, we encourage others by liking their posts or pictures. Just like how Katherine’s friends go and unlike other girls pictures they don’t like. However, it is not that they don’t enjoy the picture, by liking or un-liking the picture they are digitizing their emotion towards that person not the picture being presented. There is a seamless flow of influencing and emotion coming from the digital communication device as there is going into it. Social shaping puts an emphasis on the social process that is involved in making sense of the technology.

I chose the theoretical framework of social shaping as I believe it is the closest to grasping the state of technology and societies relationship. I believe Baym could have pushed the discussion further,  Katherine is just one example of many of how we as a society interact with our devices. As we saw in the video in class, we are continually interacting with multiple platforms at one time, we are continually offered updates with our apps and devices. We no longer need to purchase a new technological device to be provided new implications, Apple continually attempts to improve the user experience while pushing technological boundaries.