Darin Barney’ chapter, “Network Society”, discusses three theories of technology and society. These three theories are: instrumentalism, substantivism, and social constructivism. Instrumentalism holds that technology can be used as instruments to help humans. Substantivism states that technology is not only used as an instrument, but that technology also has an impact on people. Social constructivism considers technology as having different impacts on people depending on people’s society.
After reading the article, I questioned myself as to whether or not I believed that technology is for the greater good of our society. I believe that technology does have a huge impact on our culture and that it helps compose great instruments for us. If it was not for technology, we would not benefit from the comforts we utilize, depend on and enjoy today. Technology has advanced our lifestyles from traveling (planes), education (use of computers), to safety (cell phones in cars).
When considering new advancements, what came to mind was that we place a huge concern around everyone’s safety. We are always trying to think of new ideas that will help provide people with safer ways of living, including the idea that another person’s stupidity can harm the safety of another person. There has been a lot of talk about a new development that will be placed in cars. Over the years, drunk driving has been a major issue that is persistently being scrutinized in hopes of finding a solution that will put it to an end. Drunk driving not only harms the travelers in the moving vehicle, but also the people around that vehicle. The new technological advancement that is being developed and tested is sensors placed in a car that would be capable of determining a person’s blood alcohol level. This newly designed technological instrument has the possibility of saving thousands of lives annually.
Technology is here to stay in our society. It will continue to have an impact on people.
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