Technicism
Sunday, October 4, 2009 by Joel
Let them Eat Laptops: The Limits of Technicism written by Brian Winston raises some valid points about Technicism and how it is affecting the changing nature of the relationship that we have with technology. The reading got me thinking about the various different technologies that i use daily and which without i would seem lost. There are several technologies that are so embedded now into the daily routine of waking up (cellphone alarm) and heading off to uni, that without them i would have to learn and adapt to a whole different way of functioning. The strangeness of this is that with the technologies i use, i have managed to adapt and learn to use them, when before i was introduced to them i had no idea how too.
It made me further realise that as technology further develops i will continue to learn and adapt to the new ways of doing things that come about and not because i have a great deal of interest in new technology but more so because this new technology will most probably aid the processes of mundane tasks as they do now, but in ever increasingly new and better ways.
"Technicism's gravest problem is that it is disempowering. As Raymond Williams put it: "We" adapt to it, because it is the new modern way' (1989:120). In effect, supposedly, we have no choice. At a most basic level, for example, technicism offers a justification for late capital's consumerist drive. "We" cannot help ourselves when faced with a new technology but are forced in some way to adopt it." (Brian Winston, International Journal of Communication 1, 2007)
So long as new technology and also new media are being introduced to us as consumers, it seems we will continue to adapt to the new ways of doing things that are created for us through the development of technology.
It made me further realise that as technology further develops i will continue to learn and adapt to the new ways of doing things that come about and not because i have a great deal of interest in new technology but more so because this new technology will most probably aid the processes of mundane tasks as they do now, but in ever increasingly new and better ways.
"Technicism's gravest problem is that it is disempowering. As Raymond Williams put it: "We" adapt to it, because it is the new modern way' (1989:120). In effect, supposedly, we have no choice. At a most basic level, for example, technicism offers a justification for late capital's consumerist drive. "We" cannot help ourselves when faced with a new technology but are forced in some way to adopt it." (Brian Winston, International Journal of Communication 1, 2007)
So long as new technology and also new media are being introduced to us as consumers, it seems we will continue to adapt to the new ways of doing things that are created for us through the development of technology.