Technological determinism falsely credits tools alone with causing social change

Evidence

Web 2.0 narratives also frequently assume that simply introducing social technology to a community will result in greater participation and democracy, while disrupting those institutions and industries that do not adapt. The idea that the adoption of technology causes behavioral changes and social effects, regardless of context, is false. Historical analyses of science and technology show that this technological determinism is a fiction, because political, economic, and social differences in places and times affect the deployment and use of technology. The printing press and the Gutenberg Bible did not cause the Protestant Reformation. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 59

Categorization

• XREF: Directly relevant to the reader’s foundational influencer-culture project; also echoes media-ecology claims about technology and society elsewhere in the library. — connects to: Technological determinism is a fiction; context shapes technology use — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 59; The uncontract replaces social indeterminacy with programmed machine determinism. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 686; Techno-pessimists and techno-optimists share flawed determinist and exceptionalist assumptions — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 60 (+10 more)

Broader Connections

• Technological determinism is a fiction; context shapes technology use #corroborates (0.93) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 59
• Technology’s cultural effects are mediated by late capitalism not deterministically #corroborates (0.90) — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, 410
• Techno-pessimists and techno-optimists share flawed determinist and exceptionalist assumptions #expands (0.88) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 60
• Technical innovation followed capitalist social relations rather than dictating them #exemplifies (0.85) — Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America, 760
• Technological determinism substitutes for Marxist historiography by omitting class #expands (0.80) — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 161
• The uncontract replaces social indeterminacy with programmed machine determinism. #complicates (0.75) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 686
• Political change becomes social change only through redirecting technology #complicates (0.75) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 801
• Network-society scholarship neglects how new capitalist technologies create collective myths and imaginaries #complicates (0.75) — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 284
• Total systems change, and human agency’s effects often subvert its intentions #qualifies (0.73)
• Social change resists explanation within any single social science #complicates (0.72) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 28