Technological determinism facts for kids

Technological determinism is a way of thinking that says a society's technology grows on its own, and then this technology shapes how people live, how their society is organized, and what their culture believes. It's like saying technology is the main driver of change in the world.

The idea first came from Thorstein Veblen, an American thinker from the late 1800s and early 1900s. Another important person who talked about this idea was Karl Marx. He believed that changes in technology, especially how we produce things, are the main reason human societies change and develop.

Not everyone agrees with this idea, and even some followers of Marx don't fully believe in technological determinism. There are also different ways to understand what technological determinism means.

How the Idea Started

The term "technological determinism" is thought to have been created by Thorstein Veblen. He was an American social scientist. Veblen suggested that machines can change how people think.

For example, Karl Marx once thought that building railways in India would make the caste system disappear. The general idea is that technology, through its machines, can cause big changes in history by changing how people live.

One strong believer in this idea was Clarence Ayres. He followed Veblen's theories. Ayres often talked about the struggle between technology and old traditions. He believed technology was a self-starting process, and that it strongly shaped how society worked.

What It Means

Technological determinism suggests that new technical developments, or technology in general, are the main force behind history and social change. People who strongly believe this are sometimes called "hyperglobalists." They think that because technology is so widely available, globalization (the way the world becomes more connected) is bound to happen very quickly.

People who strictly follow this idea believe that technology's influence doesn't change based on how much it's used. Instead of seeing technology as just one part of human activity, they see it as the foundation for everything humans do.

Here are some simple ways to think about it:

• It's the belief that technology is a main force in society.
• It's the idea that technology's growth decides how society changes.
• It can be described as "Technology determines history."
• It's the belief that society moves forward because of new technology, which follows a set path.

This idea suggests that "you can't stop progress." This means we might feel powerless to control technology. It also suggests that societies might not see other choices for the values that technology brings with it.

Technological determinism says that technology, or new inventions, are the main cause of social change. Once a technology becomes common, its design often guides how users behave. However, this idea sometimes ignores the social and cultural situations where the technology was created.

Instead of seeing society and culture shaping technology, this view believes that "the ways technology is used are mostly decided by the technology's own design."

For example, Marshall McLuhan believed that the invention of printing helped create the idea of the nation state. He thought it moved society from a spoken culture to a reading culture. This also led to a society with clear class differences and more focus on individuals.

Strong and Weak Determinism

When we talk about determinism, we can think about "strong determinism" and "weak determinism."

Strong determinists believe that technology develops on its own, separate from what society wants. They think technology creates powerful forces that control our social activities and their meaning. In this view, we organize ourselves to meet technology's needs, and we can't control the outcome.

A French philosopher named Jacques Ellul was a strong determinist. He believed that technology, because it's so efficient, decides which parts of society are best for its own growth. He thought that a society's values and beliefs that help technology grow will become more powerful.

Weak determinism is a gentler view of how technology affects society. Weak determinists still believe technology guides our development, but they think we have a chance to make choices about what happens. It's like we can "roll the dice" and see what comes out.

William Fielding Ogburn had a weak determinist idea. He said that society has to adjust to new inventions, but it often takes time. This delay is what he called "cultural lag."

Is Technology Neutral?

Some people think technology is neutral. This means they see technology as neither good nor bad. What matters, they say, is how we use it. For example, they might say, "guns are neutral; it's up to us whether we use them for good or bad."

However, others argue that technology is only neutral if it has never been used before, or if no one knows what it's for. Once people know about a technology, society is drawn into a process where nothing is truly "neutral." If you believe technology is neutral, you might ignore the cultural and social effects it has created. This view is also called technological instrumentalism.

The historian Melvin Kranzberg famously wrote one of his "six laws of technology" saying: "Technology is neither good nor bad; nor is it neutral." This means technology always has some kind of impact, whether intended or not.

Criticisms of the Idea

Doubts about technological determinism grew in the mid-1900s. This was especially true after seeing how nuclear energy was used for nuclear weapons, and other negative uses of science. People wanted more control over technology's development. This led to less belief in technological determinism in universities.

Today, most experts who study technology and society don't see technological determinism as a very accurate way to understand how we interact with technology. Instead, research in fields like science and technology studies and the social construction of technology shows more complex views. They emphasize that technology and society are "intertwined." Technology doesn't just decide things; it "works within, and is worked upon by, a complex social field."

One main opposing idea is the social construction of technology (SCOT). SCOT research argues that the path of new inventions and their social effects are strongly shaped by society itself. This includes the influence of culture, politics, money, and rules. In its strongest form, this idea suggests that "What matters is not the technology itself, but the social or economic system in which it is embedded."

In his article "Do Artifacts Have Politics?", Langdon Winner showed that technology can have "politics" from different sources. These politics can come from the designer's intentions or the culture where the technology appears. Or, they can come from the technology itself, as a "practical necessity" for it to work.

For example, a city planner named Robert Moses supposedly built low bridges on Long Island parkways. This was to keep buses (which many minorities used) from reaching the island's beaches. This is an example of politics being built into the design from outside. On the other hand, a nuclear power plant needs a strict command-and-control system to keep radioactive waste safe. This is a "practical necessity" for the technology to function.

So, Winner doesn't fully agree with either technological determinism or social determinism. He believes you have to carefully look at a technology's features and history to understand its "politics."

Another idea that goes against technological determinism is "technological somnambulism." This term was created by Winner. He wondered if we are just "sleepwalking" through life, not really knowing how we interact with technology. In this view, we could still "wake up" and take control of where we are going. But it means society needs to realize that "users don't just passively consume technology, but actively transform it."

Opposite to technological determinism are those who believe in social determinism and postmodernism. Social determinists think that social situations alone decide which technologies are used. This means no technology is "bound to happen" just because of its own features. Postmodernists believe that what is right or wrong depends on the situation. They think technological change can affect the past, present, and future.

Media expert Brian Winston created a model for how new technologies appear. It focuses on the "Law of the suppression of radical potential." He used this to show how technologies change over time. He also showed how their "invention" is guided and controlled by society, which can stop a technology from reaching its full, radical potential.

The Stirrup Example

One ongoing debate about technological determinism involves the stirrup and its possible role in creating feudalism in Europe around the late 700s and early 800s. Lynn White first made this connection in his 1962 book, Medieval Technology and Social Change. He argued that the stirrup made "mounted shock combat" possible. This new way of fighting made soldiers much more effective in supporting feudal towns.

White believed the stirrup was superior in combat because of how it allowed knights to use a lance. With the stirrup, a rider could hold their lance firmly and deliver a blow using the combined weight of themselves and their charging horse. White suggested that this new fighting style, made possible by the stirrup, was the underlying reason for the shift in military power and the rise of feudalism.

However, White's book has faced a lot of criticism. Critics like P.H. Sawyer and R.H. Hilton argued that the stirrup alone cannot explain the changes it made possible. They said that while the stirrup might have been useful, it wasn't the only reason feudalism was created.

Despite the strong criticism, the idea of the stirrup as a technological determinist example is still discussed. Some experts, like Alex Roland, take a middle ground. They don't fully praise White's claims but also defend him against some of the harsh criticisms. Roland sees White's focus on technology as the most important part of his book. He believes that "Most of White's argument stands... the rest has sparked useful lines of research." This shows that the idea of technological determinism is still a topic for discussion, not fully accepted or rejected.

Famous Technological Determinists

• Thomas L. Friedman, an American journalist and author, says he is a technological determinist in his book The World Is Flat.
• Futurist Raymond Kurzweil's ideas about a technological singularity (a point where technology grows so fast it changes human life forever) follow a technologically deterministic view of history.
• Some people see Karl Marx as supporting technological determinism. He once wrote: "The Handmill gives you society with the feudal lord: the steam-mill, society with the industrial capitalist." But others argue that Marx was not a determinist.
• Technological determinist Walter J. Ong looked at how society changed from a spoken culture to a written one in his book Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word (1982). He believed this change happened because of new writing and printing technologies. He argued that writing changed human thinking more than any other invention.

Media Determinism

Media determinism is a type of technological determinism. It's a belief that the media (like TV, internet, books) has a strong power to affect society. Two key thinkers in media determinism are Harold Innis and Marshall McLuhan.

McLuhan's famous idea, "the medium is the message," is a great example of technological determinism in media. Both Innis and McLuhan believed that media was at the core of civilization. They thought that different types of media led to different ways of thinking.

McLuhan was not a strong determinist. He suggested that using certain media might have subtle effects on us. But more importantly, he believed the social situation where media is used is crucial.

In a determinist view, technology seems to have a life of its own and drives social events. Innis believed that the social, cultural, political, and economic changes in each historical period were directly linked to the technology of mass communication at that time.

However, this idea has been questioned by many experts. For example, scholar Raymond Williams criticizes media determinism. He believes that social movements, not just technology, define how technology and media develop. Another opposing view is "audience determinism," which focuses on how people use media, rather than media doing things to people.

See also

In Spanish: Determinismo tecnológico para niños