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How Technology Affects People’s Identities and Social Relationships
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How Technology Affects People’s Identities and Social Relationships
Catherine Latterell’s “Introduction to Technology” portrays how technology affects people’s daily lives and the assumptions that individuals make about it. The author argues that technology is advantageous and that it can be perilous or causes the breakdown of societal norms. The three primary assumptions discussed by Latterell in the essay are that technologies comprise of machines, they bring peril or progress, and that they are neutral. Similarly, Langdon Winner’s “Technological Somnambulism” depicts that technologies are not mere tools that help people to perform their activities, but they are significant forces that shape individuals’ lives. In particular, the author claims that technology is neutral and that users are the ones who decide what to do with it. For example, Winner and Latterell affirm that one can use a knife to stab a person or slice loaves of bread. Technological somnambulism reveals how individuals have been sleepwalking in their mediations of what is technology. Technology unintended applications can be detrimental to societies, even though machines are developed to improve human lives. For this reason, technological somnambulism enables people to perceive technology as tools that can be avoided without considering their effects on people.
Individuals should understand that technologies comprise both tools and processes that enable them to perform various activities with ease. Technologies are computers or machines, social organizations, and technical activities that people use in their daily lives to perform various activities. Latterell borrows the definition of technology from a 2002 report that was written by the Committee on Technological Literacy and the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) entitled “Technically Speaking: Why All Americans Need to Know More about Technology.” Based on the study, technology refers to “the process by which humans modify nature to meet their needs and wants” (Latterell, 2009, p. 414). As such, it comprises of different things that individuals use to make their work easier. For example, a student uses a computer or tablet to access his or her online course at home instead of going to school, which might be located many miles away. Latterell argues that technologies are machines that are supported by the technical knowledge of people. Additionally, social organizations such as schools, hospitals, and governments use tools to run their daily operations smoothly. Winner says, “The deceptively reasonable notion that we have inherited from much earlier and less complicated times divides the range of possible concerns about technology into two basic categories: making and use” (Winner, 2014, p. 437). At this juncture, the author asserts that individuals believe that technology improves how people do their work. As such, repairers, engineers, and technicians come up with different tools and maintain them to ensure that users benefit from them. In most cases, individuals who ...