Technology and Culture

Technology and Culture

1. Technological determinism

   • 'There is a strong tendency, especially when technologies are new, to view them as causal agents, entering societies as active forces of change that humans have little power to resist' - Baym, 2015 p.26
     • example of this is the metaverse
   • An idiom that has been brought into the world is the view that technology has changed culture e.g. sayings such as 'no wonder kids don't play anymore, they have smartphones'. Also impact of dating apps meaning people don't find true love
     • This can be related back to McLuhan (1964) The Medium is the Message. He talks about the medium that we use to communicate then dictates the message that we get to communicate e.g. if a lecture was live-streamed, in person, emailed - this would change the nature of the message that was being communicated
       • Technology is linked with previous ways we communicated e.g. telegraph = written word = speech = non-verbal thinking
       • seeing the media as something which changes the message
   • Problem with this idea is it sees technology as the only thing that would lead culture to change e.g. it would only be the development of smartphones that would change the experience of childhood
     • We need to account for other things which change culture e.g. society, economy, politics,

2. Cultural Determinism

   • The problem is people would only be far one way - either the idea that technology changes culture or culture dictates technology: the technology only emerges from a culture that wants it - Klein and Kleinman (2002)
     • This pushes us to the idea of the 'third way'

3. The 'third' way - Raymond Williams (Williams, 1974 television chapter 1)

   • Need to see technology and society in constant relationship: technology informs society and society informs technology. Technology is not autonomous but maybe semi-autonomous
   • Don't think of a starting point - what about before your starting point? not an easy to understand relationship
   • We can think of technology and change as: Technical inventions (computer), Socially instituted tech (the internet), cultural forms (social media).

4. Algorithms

   • These agorithms are an essential part of digital media technology - it is a word thrown around a lot.
   • Set of rules that take input data and create output data: example is the overall grade calculator for A levels - it decides rather than describes
   • Reccomendation algorithm for Netflix (Kitchin, 2021) - will take your past viewing experience, existing videos, predicted trends, artificial intelligence to create a unique viewing experience that should be tailored to your wants and needs
     • This is aimed at getting you to stay on the platform for as long as possible - therefore the sophistication of the algorithm is absolutely key
   • Abusey Junction - song of the London jazz scene which got 49+ million views on YouTube as the algorithm pushed it towards the public
     • TD view - technology has an emphasis of playlists and hybridity on YouTube which pushes less intrusive and less adventurous jazz to the top - effect on culture is this pushes artists to produce lss adventurous music - look at Hesmondhalgh reading
       • CD view - recommendation algorithm emerges from a longer social practice of record shops and this created a YouTube algorithm that chooses for you, what we choose influences the algorithm, the algorithm doesn't influence us

5. Hesmondhalgh, 2021 - streaming's effects on Music Culture: Old Anxieties and New Simplifications

   • 'Streaming Encourages Functional Musical Experience' - p.6. 'Liberals and radicals alike feared that programmed music represented a new phase, drive by technologies associated with industrialization, whereby music more than ever would serve non-aesthetic functions' - p.7. 'programmed and background music were understood to serve business, or capital, by manipulating workers to work harder, or consumers to spend more' - p.7
   • Streaming Encourages Bland, Unchallenging Music - p.9
   • Streaming makes musical experience distracted and passive, and music recedes into the background
   • Streaming makes tracks and songs shorter, and musical experience more fragmented
   • Streaming limits exploration and discovery

6. what are the risks of TD and CD?

7. What are Raymond WIlliams' three main elements of technological change? give relevant examples