Technology: It uses us or we use it?

In Darin Barney’s “Network Society,” Barney states a very important question on the first page, “Does society make the internet what is it or does the Internet make society what it is?” Barney uses three different viewpoints to describe how a technology works in a society: instrumentalism, which is the viewpoint that technology is a neutral tool until humans use it and add the meaning to it. The meaning could either be positive or morally corrupt. An example of how it could be used in a positive way is to create a solar power refrigerator for citizens of third world countries. A morally corrupt way would be child pornography, or even cyber bullying on website called juicy campus. Substantivism is the view that hegemony or the dominant viewpoint shapes our modern way of living. The last is social constructivism, which is the relationship between a society and the environment it thrives in.

All of these view points lead to the four points to fully analyze the way in which technology works: essence or sprit of technology, technical design, situation and use. The essence of technology is first that it is artificial or unnatural. In an instrumentalist way of thinking, it extends to all part of society. Depending on where the technology is, there is a certain set of rules and regulations that people follow. Technical design has to do with politics. For example, highway overpasses were designed for smaller cars in Long Island, so only the wealthy could go to the beaches. Another example are Smartphone’s are really only available to people who can afford the extra fee for the Internet. Situation of network technology is about security and authorization. Before, the Internet used to be anonymous. For example, people used screen names on Instant Messenger (AOL or AIM) to disguise who they really were. This was for safety, since we didn’t trust the Internet quite yet. The last of the four is how technology is used. People can use the same medium in different ways. For example, People might use the Internet to communicate by email, Facebook or Twitter, or they might use it to shop, or play games, etc. These four things shape technology into both how we use technology as a society and how it uses us.