The Technology and the Society

In the Technology and the Society reading, Raymond Williams discusses different ways to think about how technology has affected our lives. He talks about how everyone says and agrees that new technologies have brought about very significant changes in our world, yet that thought is much more profound than we realize. When I think about all the technological progress humanity has experienced, I am pretty amazed. Just think about how the telegraph, then the phone, and later radio and television must have revolutionized communication. It went from slow snail-mail. Then long distance communication became fast, faster, and here we are: we’ve got the internet and send messages to people across the world, practically instantaneously and with little hassle.

Another thing I thought was interesting in William’s essay was the theory of technological determinism. The main idea behind this theory is that it’s technology that “made modern man and the modern condition.” I have never thought of technology that way; I think most of the time we think the other way around, that man is modern because he made that technology. But I can see how man develops some new technology, and that new technology takes off in ways bigger than he expected, thus causing a significant impact on life as we know it.  For example, again, the internet!