ARTICLE REVIEW - NATASHA - WEEK 3

Baym, Nancy K.. Personal Connections in the Digital Age, Polity Press, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/aut/detail.action?docID=4030041.
Created from aut on 2018-03-27 16:38:06.

In the Performance and Practise paper, we had to read this chapter which I think fits well into Virtual Worlds course too. A particular part of this reading was interesting because of the theoretical components of technology such as Technological Determinism and Social Construction.

My initial thoughts to these theories was that TD seemed to be slightly premature for the current era. I do not believe that technology has a high level of control upon society, but this is managed by the allowance we give it to function. I think it is almost extremist for the present time as technology is not commonly autonomous, artificial intelligence though available, does not permeate as much as this theory implies. Though the view that technology is “an external agent that acts upon and changes society” cannot be considered to be incorrect, as it has done so, but not with illicit intention. Instead I would say I am a social constructionist, arguing that “technologies arise from social processes”; users and technology have co-existed in a dynamic relationship where technology has been at our whim to “alter our life world”. The availability of technologies inspires us to utilise them in ways we see fit, and is not necessarily derived from the suggested deterministic power. TD theory implies dystopian connotations which I do not believe are accurate because we are not victims of technology, but are masters at using it to aid us (Calvert, 2002). Though, I do not irrevocably condemn TD theory indefinitely as I think it will hold more validity in the future, with the progress and availability of AI and singularity testing the power balance.

BUT

I have had a recent change in this argument because I have realised that I did not really include a lot of media that exists, which does in fact potentially determine a lot of behaviour from users. I think I was mainly thinking about the current use of media in my personal life, and this current time, without thinking of emerging technologies which may peak in the near future, yet are still available. Virtual reality is a good example of technological determinism, because a small amount of people decide what these new virtual worlds will encapsulate, and despite users not being forced to use such media, these availabilities definitely have a strong influence. I was watching Black Mirror (a show on Netflix), where people are completely plugged into a virtual world and live through their avatars. The only use their human person seems to have is to cycle on a still bike and generate a form of currency which they then can spend on food, or buying “experiences” as their avatar. This may be a metaphor for their real life self to generate literal electrical power for the community (the purpose of the cycling is never explicitly explained), in order to give “life” to their avatar. It is a system that seems designed to lock users in with minimal choices. This really made me think of technological determinism having more effect that initially thought, especially because it moulded its social structure and cultural values, and the people who seemed to oppose it were definitely outliers. Over all, I think virtual reality has many technological deterministic factors and it may be naïve to undermine its current and foreseeable ability.