MDSA01H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 6: Radio-Frequency Identification, Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Gift Economy
Document Summary
Chapter 6: communication technology and society: theory and practice. Overview: thinking about technology, technology and western society, media convergene, the internet and digitalization. Introduction: technological sublime -an almost religious like reverence(respect) paid to machine. Feenberg provides four main ways to think about and understand technology: instrumentalism, determinism, substantivism, and critical theory. Instrumentalism: technology is a value-neutral tool that helps us achieve our goals more ef ciently; a means to an end and can be used for whatever purpose we choose, sees technology as a tool for our use. Substantivists view the modern condition as re ective of the essence of modern technology- its rationality, its ef ciency, its priority on control and calculability. The more pessimistic or dystopian of the substantavists argue that technological thought and action threaten non-technological values as they extend ever deeper into social life. We become,in a sense, slaves to technology and our desire for greater ef ciency and control.
