Darin Barney’s “Network Society” holds several interesting theories and ideas about technology and society. Barney goes over three views of technology: 1. Instrumentalism- that technologies can be used as instruments to effectively help societies in one way or another, 2. Substantivism- that technology is not only used as an instrument by people but that those technologies have an impact on us as well, and 3. Social Constructivism- technology is heterogeneous meaning it has different social impacts on different societies.
Barney has several other ideas on factors in technology such as essence, technological design, situation, and use, but I chose to focus more on the first view he talks about: Instrumentalism. I remembered a $150 computer that we had talked about in a class a couple years ago that Intel and Microsoft were producing for third-world countries. This is a great example of how technology is being used as “good”, or as a means of educating the children of impoverished countries. Also, I read another article about how cell phone texting could be used to help poverty stricken nations. They brought up several great examples such as a Uganda woman being able to text the doctor that is a 3 day walk away before walking there and him not even being in town. From a substantivist view, technology may have a negative impact on us but if you have to remember all of the valuable impacts it has also.
Next time I am sitting on my Facebook for hours on end making some insignificant status update about the “new Facebook” outlay, or complaining about the setup of the buttons on my Blackberry I’m going to remember the ways that technology has been used for the greater good and keep the complaint to myself.
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