Archive for February 18th, 2010

Thanks largely to a course on infrastructure studies, my thinking about the role of technology in society has evolved greatly in 2010. I used to be convinced that digital technologies were just tools, capable of good or bad uses. Now, I’m more likely to find that they do exert some sort of pressure towards society, but that the ultimate effect is still a result of mixing with larger societal forces (see domestication theory).

These are issues that are receiving a lot of attention – Jaron Lanier is getting big-time media attention for saying that the Internet is taking us all to hell in a hand-basket in his new book, You Are Not a Gadget, the public is being led to ask questions about the effect of Google and the Internet on cognition, etc. But what is missing, in my opinion, from these discussions are the productive ways in which willing individuals can use specific technologies to change the supposed direction of our networked milieu.

For example, by nature of being a limited-purpose device, as opposed to the iPad’s more generalized capabilites, the Amazon Kindle has, at least anecdotally, allowed far more people to focus on reading long-form writing. Another option, and one that I use when writing longer papers, is Freedom for Mac, a simple software tool for OSX that disables wifi connectivity allowing me to avoid distractedly slipping into the series of tubes. Or take the advances in audio technology which limit external interference.

Sure, these are ways to “drop-out” of the technological world. And sure, Freedom for Mac isn’t as granular as I’d like (i.e. block Facebook but not LexisNexis), but these tools don’t need to be perfect, they just need to nudge people towards behavior that is more conducive to the good life. They need to just slightly alter any potential downsides of “being digital” to make the good parts easier. Unfortunately, the debate surrounding this all-to-often assumes that the trajectory is set and that we cannot change it through the use of innovative tools.