Don’t be a tool — How technology shapes your life.

Technology is all about empowerment. But paradoxically, many technologies possess quite plainly the characteristic to control and shape our lives. An isolated instance of technology may not have the power to impose itself upon us, but a technological system certainly does. Engagement with technology has, apart from its practical uses, fundamentally changed the way people think and behave.

Mobile phones, cars, bridges, microwave ovens, cigarettes, social media, smartwatches, and other tools and instruments— are not neutral artefacts. They not only enable human beings to do specific things, but actively co-shape our perceptions, actions, experiences and existence in the world.

Technology sets up a paradigm of structure and rules that dictates and shapes human activity, and consequently, society as a whole. By virtue of design or dynamics, some forms of action are fostered or rewarded, while others are discouraged. When these hidden forces remain ignored and invisible, they have an absolute power over the user.

What is desperately needed is a kind of understanding of the technological forces that drive personal and societal change. If we can manage to understand these aspects of technology, we can try to foster the beneficent effects and neutralise the adverse effects. In order to do so, we must first find an answer to the question: how are interactions with technology affecting people’s lives?

The relation between people and technology

Throughout history historians, philosophers and anthropologists have traced, and debated, technology’s role in shaping human activity and civilisations. Determinists argue that technologies not only aid, but also shape human activity. They argue that technology exerts its power on society as an autonomous force outside man’s control. On the other end of this debate are instrumentalists. They believe tools and technology to be neutral artefacts, entirely subservient to the conscious decisions made by people.

Technology can also be understood as a mediator between humans and the world. This approach is neither determinist nor instrumentalist, but somewhere in between. In virtually all situations of our daily lives, technology mediates the ways we perceive and experience reality.

Technological progress has its own logic, which is not always consistent with the intentions or wishes of the toolmakers or the tool users. — Nicolas Carr, in: The Shallows

The influence of technology is best understood when viewed in the fuller context of the history of technology, writes Nicolas Carr in The Shallows: What the Internet is doing to our brains. Most modern technologies are similar to mankind’s past “intellectual technologies” that, apart from their practical uses, have fundamentally changed the way people think and behave.

Mechanical clocks, for example, as a medium or tool, had far greater impact on the lives of people and society than its message; telling the time. By thinking of days as a collection of hours, instead of as sequence of events, people became more efficient and scientific. By starting to obey the clock; society, and humans in general, also became more mechanical and controlled. Similarly, cartography, or map-making, greatly increased our ancestors’ navigational skills, but weakened their native ability to comprehend a landscape by forming richly detailed mental maps of their surroundings as a result.

A more recent example of how technology co-shaped the relation between humans and the world, is the introduction of the microwave oven, as explained by Peter-Paul Verbeek in What Things Do. The microwave not only offered a measure of convenience when preparing food, but, more significantly, it changed people’s eating patterns and the ‘culture of the table’.

“Technology develops cumulatively, rather than in isolated heroic acts, and that it finds most of its uses after it has been invented, rather than being invented to meet a foreseen need.” — Jared Diamond, in: Guns, Germs, and Steel

The history of technology suggests that the by-products of technology are rarely anticipated or recognised by its inventors, who are often oblivious to the broader implications of their work. Or founders have simply been too concerned with the benefits and monetary gains.

McLuhan’s arguably most famous saying: the medium is the message, is still highly applicable. The personal consequences of the existence of any extension of ourselves — that is, any technology, tool, or medium — and the effects of on society as a whole, makes for an infinitely richer object of study than whatever humans happen to do with them. So only once technology is regarded as a persuasive mechanism actively shaping the world we live in, instead of as a passive tool, an honest appraisal can be made, considering what is gained, as well as what’s lost.

Thanks for reading.

I study online media and technology to understand what drives human behaviour, and to understand society as a whole. I occasionally attempt to write about my findings and readings. Feel free to follow me.

Also, I am currently looking for work experience or an internship as a digital strategist or designer in Amsterdam. So, hit me up: www.thomasrekers.nl