The document discusses the interplay between culture and technology, emphasizing the debate on technological determinism versus the social shaping of technology. It argues that while technology influences society, this impact is often overstated, and genuine community engagement relies on meaningful interaction beyond social media. The author highlights concerns about social media's role in weakening interpersonal connections and its potential negative consequences for society.

1. Plus Ça Change‘Issues and Approaches New Media’By Denise Teal

2. OutlineSummary of the Reading Approaches to New Media by Tony Flew.How do culture and technology influence each other? In the News – Archbishop’s comments on Social MediaDiscussion

3. Beyond Hype and Counter-Hype“computing is not about computers any more, it’s about living” Negroponte, Being Digital 1995“we are in the middle of the most transforming technological event since the capture of fire ” Barlow“force for freedom and individualism, culture and morality” Gilder“the land of knowledge and the exploration of that land can be civilisation’s truest and highest calling” Tofler

4. Beyond Hype and Counter-hypeTo judge by the overheated tributes to computer technology that have become increasingly common in the press... one would be led to conclude that the Internet is the most important invention since fire, [and] that a laptop computer dwarfs the automobile in its societal impact… My advice to the somewhat overly enthusiastic technophiles... is simple: Get a grip. Michael Hammer as quoted by Robert B. Seidensticker in Future Hype, 2005

5. Beyond Hype and Counter-hypeThe kind of research and theoretical tradition used. Empirical new media tends to be a research practice of those seeking to manage change rather than effect it.The recurring significance of optimism as a form of myth that needs not only to be unmasked but also learned from.

6. Approaches to technological changeTechnological Determinism. According to technological determinists, particular technical developments, communications technologies or media, or, most broadly, technology in general are the sole or prime antecedent causes of changes in society, and technology is seen as the fundamental condition underlying the pattern of social organization Chandler, Daniel (1995): 'Technological or Media Determinism’ URL http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/tecdet/tecdet.html [2/8/09]

7. Approaches to technological changeTechnological Determinism cont.the partial truth of technological determinism is this, that “once particular technologies are widely adopted and used, they acquire a degree of lock-in that shapes society in a wider sense”. Flew (2008)

8. Approaches to technological changeSocial Shaping of TechnologyPoints to the need to analyse ‘the socio-economic patterns embedded in boththe content of technologies and……the process of innovation

9. Approaches to technological changeSocial Shaping of TechnologyDiffusion of Innovations ModelSeeks to model the adoption and spread of innovation through communication via particular channels over time.Focuses on social uptake of new tech and has a pro-innovation bias (Rogers, 2003)

10. Approaches to technological changeSocial Shaping of TechnologyPolitical Economy ModelFocuses more on the politics and power relations embedded in technological development.

11. Approaches to technological changeSocial Shaping of TechnologyTheories of Culture and TechnologySays that technologies are … processes that structure the world in particular ways.Seeks not to separate technology and the social into separate domains.

12. Social Psychology: Identity and Interpersonal Relations online Social Psychology of new media or Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) has generated strong interest in…How to best target marketingManaging concerns about accessNew forms of community, sociality and identity formation

13. Social Psychology: Identity and Interpersonal Relations online Early speculations about CMC.Rheingold – seeing possibility of reinvigorated sense of community and citizen participation in public life. (1994)Turkle stated that through identity and play within CMC “…people are increasingly comfortable with substituting representations of reality for the real” (1995)Flew goes on to demonstrate that time passing moderated opinions in favour of more empirically based assessments.

14. Technology and CultureSignificance of culture as “communication mediated through technologies” appears as we compare the three levels of defining of ‘technology’Physical objects, tools, artifactsContent – software, defined by its use.Systems of knowledge and social meaningWith the three levels of defining of ‘culture’Culture with the arts and aestheticsAs in ‘way of life’, lived experience, community, social groupsUnderlying structural system

15. Political Economy and Cultural StudiesPolitical economy approaches to new media start from a perspective of economic and industrial dynamics, focusing on the extent to which access to resources influences directions new media developments takeAccess to investment capitalAccess to political influenceAccess to technologies themselvesThis approach is skeptical that new media has led to fundamental changes in socio economic structures.

16. Political Economy and Cultural StudiesCultural Studies approaches to new media start from communications and cultureThe relationship between producers and users. The communication going from one to many to many to many causes the producers to renegotiate the relationship which brings change.Tends to be more positive about the transformative potential of new media.

17. How do culture and technology influence each other? Facebook and MySpace can lead children to commit suicide, warns Archbishop NicholsWynne Jones, Daily Telegraph

18. How do culture and technology influence each other? the sites are leading teenagers to build "transient relationships" which leave them unable to cope when their social networks collapse. relationships are already being weakened by the decline in face-to-face meetings and conversations over the phoneas a society we're losing some of the ability to build interpersonal communication that's necessary for living together and building a community."If we mean by community a genuine growing together and a mutual sharing in an interest that is of some significance then it needs more than Facebook.

19. How do culture and technology influence each other? Social media is becoming a replacement for social engagement and this is a bad trend. social networking has made the already existing problems more visibleResponsible use of Social Media - that should be the idea.There are key interpersonal lessons not learned when relying on social media,

20. How do culture and technology influence each other? The issue isn’t the medium in which the harassment occurred, but the harassment itself.Ben Parr, Mashable

21. How do culture and technology influence each other? Question:Has Social Media augmented or diminished your IRL (in real life) social interactions?

22. How do culture and technology influence each other? Straw Poll on Facebook:Of the old, old friends you've reconnected with on Facebook... how many of them have you since met up with in person? If you have not met up, do you plan to in the future?

23. How do culture and technology influence each other? Would meet -distance prevents – 4 Would not meet up – 3 Have met up with >5 will do so more – 4 Met up with one or two – 8Only really keep up with existing friendships from that period – 2

24. ConclusionsPlus ça change, ces’t plus la même chose.The more things change, the more they stay the same.

25. ReferencesFuture Hype: The Myths of Technology Changeby Robert B. Seidensticker2005, Berrett-Koehler Publishers (San Francisco, CA)Facebook and MySpace can lead children to commit suicide, warns Archbishop Nichols Jonathan Wynne-Jones, Daily TelegraphPublished: 9:45PM BST 01 Aug 2009http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/5956719/Facebook-and-MySpace-can-lead-children-to-commit-suicide-warns-Archbishop-Nichols.html

26. ReferencesFacebook Leads to Suicide, Warns UK Head of Roman Catholic Church, Ben Parr, Mashable August 2nd 2009 http://mashable.com/2009/08/02/suicide-facebook-catholic-church/