Is the Future Just a Horrible Breakup?

"Users as Agents of Technological Change: The Social Construction of the Automobile in the Rural United States" by Ronald Kline and Trevor Pinch discussed how the invention of the automobile transformed and shaped our world. Kline and Pinch discuss how "artifacts," such as the automobile, have created different paths within our society, but at the same time, the consumers have also molded the artifact as well. The technology that has changed society is seen as an “external force,” according to Kline and Pinch. Yet, I question if there has been more of a change on our society due to the technology, or if there has been more of a change on the technology due to our society. Both the society and technology rely heavily on one another and determine the changes that each go through and make.

Today, technology is not invented just for the purpose of survival, but as a form of entertainment, too. There are many different inventions in our society that are strictly made to keep us busy and happy. While, people can argue that video games serve many different purposes, the main point of these virtual realities is for people to have fun and be entertained. Now, if you look at technology as a whole, you can see how both technology and society lean on each other.

Our society can no longer be satisfied by inventions that only serve the purpose of helping us survive, like electricity. The consumers have shaped technologies and their purposes. The community craves video games and televisions; technologies that largely exist to entertain the people. So, by looking at technology as a whole, you can see how people shaped technology. Technology has also shaped the people. With more and more inventions, people have been accustomed to the convenience of what the different inventions offer. The consumers lives are being made easier, they are no longer satisfied with technologies that just help with survival, but they now have the need to be entertained. Looking at the bigger picture, you can see how technology transforms the consumers, but also the consumer transforms the technology.

This can be related to when Kline and Pinch discuss income-producing and supportive work. This made me think about technology that helps for our survival. I relate the income-producing work to this technology because both are providing for the consumer, allowing for their survival. The income-producing work is creating monetary success, keeping the farmers alive, while inventions, like electricity, is keeping people alive. I see a relationship with supportive work and entertainment purpose technology, too. I am not trying to say that the supportive work that women did was not helpful, but it did not provide for the family like the income-producing work did. It may be a stretch but I think these two types of work can relate to the two types of technology, survival based and entertainment based.

Technologies have transformed from inventions that were created for our survival to things that are here to entertain us. This has happened through the close relationship between the consumer and technology. The article from the Herald Sun, discusses technology in the future and what consumers can expect. Kline and Pinch, as well as the Herald Sun article, made me question: Are we hurting ourselves with the technologies being created? Are the consumers losing skills? I hope that this relationship does not end with one of the two (consumer and technology) overpowering the other. Or has it already?