The Modern-Day Social Construction of Technology

The Social Construction of Technology is very real for the society that we live in today. For example, applications are created, but the user of the phone dictates how often the applications are used and how popular they become. It is like the saying that "we only have what we give meaning." I will use Instagram for an example. Many people in our generation spend hours on Instagram a day. However, if Instagram was to suddenly delete - all that time would be wasted. However, since we are the ones that are always on Instagram, we are the ones that are demanding applications as such; and thus, editing applications will arise off of user demand. The structural construction of technology is developed through companies, however, I truly believe that users dictate the demand that the device is used for.

The interactivity of new age digital media causes anxiety throughout avid social media users today. Exemplified in the Katherine Pommerening article, there is a lot of socially constructed pressure on users of social media. For example, Katherine posts many posts, but deletes the ones that do not get enough likes. Although this may seem absurd, society gives "meaning" to likes as a social media currency, and thus she feels inadequate if she does not receive her desired amount. This can cause a lot of anxiety and incredible amounts of pressure for a platform that is just meant for people to keep in touch with each other.

In addition, different platforms of social media have different "currencies." For example, bloggers value the views on their video, regular Facebook or Instagram users value likes, Twitter users value retweets, etc. If society as a whole puts value into these media "currencies," users will conform to them and start caring about them.

The reason I chose the Social Construction of Technology is because I truly believe that if these platforms were to magically disappear, there would be less value in Social Media and people would have to socialize face-to-face instead. The meaning that society puts into views and likes would be transferred to other forms of life and energy would be dispersed into different areas of society and could perhaps share the "likes" face to face.