Living with Technological Determinism

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Living with Technological Determinism

• Confessions of a Technophobic MET Student

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My name is Ann

• And I am a recovering technological determinist
  (TD)

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Ill start at the beginning

• Truth is, that Ive always thought

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Computers were

• Things that required lots of leisure time
• Expensive gadgets
• used for frivolous functions
• Just another distraction
• from life and living

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Before I joined MET

• I had no dispute with the notion that
• technology was the agent of social change

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I could take it or leave it

• Since I had no use or need for computers
• Computers had nothing against me
• What others use their computers for
• was none of my business

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So I ignored the first 20 years of this
technological revolution

• I did not sign up for Computing classes in high
  school

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I did not learn to mutilate those little computer
cards
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And I was content.

• Although McLuhan would have told me
• that I was in the numb stance of a
  technological idiot (1974 26)

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I did notice, however

• That friends who learned how to punch
• those funny little computer cards
• Eventually got jobs that paid big bucks

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And more frequently, people around me started
talking about

• Email
• Internet
• Websites
• Chatting
• Hardware/Software
• Going Digital

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More and More

• The what, how, where, why and when
• discourses about everyday life
• evolved around
• Getting It ONLINE

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When I told people

• Ummmm I have no computer.

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They responded
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And at Work

• Management initiatives for
• Efficiency
• Accountability and
• Decentralized decision-making systems

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Usually meant that

• I had to learn yet another database or software
• Then tell the students
• We dont do that anymore
• Youll have to download it yourself from our
  website

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Sometimes I was suspicious that

• Changes implemented were only for
• profit, industrialization and control
• But promoted as being
• client-centered, innovative, and democratic
• But only for a moment

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I still wasnt convinced

• That the medium was the message
• That a representation of the real could come
  before the real
• Or that any technology was beyond social control

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Then one day.

• I realized that progress
• was having strange effects on me
• I could no longer WRITE letters or essays
• without the use of a computer

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To my horror, I realized that

• My workloads got heavier the deadlines shorter

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• Social skills required computer savvy
• (Dates required a digital picture)
• And for everyday chores such as banking, finding
  information on products, or
• making ferry reservations etc.,

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I NEEDED a computer

• Not to mention the internet!!

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I started to resent

• My new computer
• My dependence on this machine
• My lack of understanding of its intentions and
  motives
• The control it had over so many aspects of my
  life

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I asked myself

• What is this force that has so much power over
  me?
• How does it make so many demands of me?
• What is the meaning of virtual reality?

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Fear and dread came over me.

• Was I going to get left behind?
• (Behind what, I really didnt think about)

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Resistance was futile

• I was already being assimilated
• into a grand technical network of
• practices,
• procedures and
• designs controlling everyday life

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My apathy towards technology turned to self-doubt

• Am I normal?
• A Luddite?
• Anti-social?
• A nerd?
• Or just plain dense?

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In desperation, I started to believe that

• In order to survive in the modern information
  society and
• Keep a competitive edge in the current computer
  age

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I had no choice but to go with the flow
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So I did something drastic

• I applied to an educational technology program at
  the university
• Lied about having dreams of teaching with
  technology
• Signed up to write many 20 page papers on various
  methodologies that
• I hoped to put into practice one day

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The truth is.
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I had advanced TD

• But of course, I didnt realize it
• Nor did I think it mattered
• Since I thought all things were inevitable
• And I couldnt change a single thing

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My delusions of riding the technology beast,
however

• Were dashed in MET.

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Rather than mastering technology,

• I read about
• Ontology and Epistemology
• Mapping theories
• Critical Pedagogy
• Foucaults Madness and Civilization

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Then came

• Contextualism and interactionism
• Sociotechnology
• Political ecology and finally,
• Hybridity and cyborg theories

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Thats when my TD showed new symptoms

• I often caught myself thinking about
• Why am I in the MET program?
• What brought me here?
• How will I cope with the loss of boundaries
• between human, economic, natural and technical
  systems?

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How have these new ideas changed my perspectives

• And how will they change my identity and life?

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I was in a strange land

• Technology was no longer the distinct, external
  or the objective
• I shook at the implications of Awareness
• And shuddered at what lay before me

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At this point in time, my condition was upgraded
to

• TECHNOPHOBIA

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Technophobia

• Technophobia is not a psychological condition or
  a disorder...

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Technophobics regard technology as

• Destructive because it leads to a process of
  dehumanization and
• believe social reliance on technology is harmful
• (http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technophilia)

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I have a long way to go

• I still have relapses
• I feel helpless when seeing the powers and reach
  of human technologies
• Often, I turn my head away Accept
  technological consequences
• As someone elses reality

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Then I pause

• Turn back, and look again to consider
• How it could be different

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Its a start
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• Written by
• Ann C. Kim
• Images and Sound from
• Microsoft Office Clip Art and Media
• Image of computer punch card from
• http//imagehost.vendio.com