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October 25, 2005
Technological Determinism
After re-reading the part of Practices of Looking that talked about technological determinism, I have to agree with the views of the text book. Cartwright and Sturken say, "...we look at technologies (specifically visual technologies) as the product of specific social and historical contexts. They emerge from collective cultural and social desires. In other words, it can be argued that that technologies have important and influential effects on society, but they are also themselves the products of their societies and times and the ideologies that exist within them," (116).
I completely agree with this statement. I think that technologies grow from society, specifically from a desire for them. For example, the Internet grew from society's desire to communicate with the world around them more easily. At the same time though, the Internet has inspired so much more in our culture. The Internet is a huge part of our daily lives and although it is cliche, the world truly is at our fingertips. The same is true of photography. Photograpy sprang from a need to record our memories, to chronicle our lives. Yet, it turned into much more than this, and now is the basis for much of our daily living.
--Brenna DeCotis
Posted by lciscotis at October 25, 2005 07:28 PM