As we have been learning, technology is a major, if not primary force, of social change. Anthropologists have studied how advancements in lithics (stone tools) led to the perseverance of some species and the extinction of others. In today’s contemporary world we are bombarded with conflicting forms of technology and very often we feel that society is moving faster than we are individually. What is your view?
- Exercise: Write a short reflection paper in which you consider the role that technology plays in your own life. Can you think of an example in which you felt that technology was moving faster than your life?
Sociologists are interested not only in the technical aspects of the role of technology in society, such as in the processing speed of computers, but in the values associated with the development of technology and its integration in the social lives of individuals. The earlier case study of the Luddities suggests to us that like all forms of social change, technologically-driven social change will not be accepted automatically by all members of a society. Let us analyze some of the major ways in which technology brings about social change in a society, followed by two case studies of technology and social change – virtual society and surveillance society.
How Technology Produces Social Change
- Technology Alters Economic Structures – the advance of microcomputers led to a boom in the e-commerce industry. Unfortunately, the boom was short-lived as many e-businesses, such as Pets.com, went under.
- Technology Alters Social Relationships – with the advent of the Internet, social forms, such as dating, are now being mediated in a virtual sense.
- Technology Alters Values – many people are concerned with the values associated with new technology. For example, some individuals have blamed violent media – video games, movies, CDs – for forms of violence in our society.
- Technology Alters Self – Kenneth Gergen’s The Saturated Self (2000) argues that our intimate lives have been co-opted by the media and the various forms of technology around us. As a result, we develop “saturated selves” dependent on the values of media and technology external to us.
- Technology Alters Politics – during the Tiananmen Square uprising in China in 1989, after the Chinese government cut the video feed of CBS and other stations, dissidents used fax machines to get the word out about the atrocities being committed by the government. In contemporary politics, many parties and political action committees use technology to build larger coalitions, raise money and educate others about their candidates’ views.