Culture: The Foundation for Technological Development

Since humans first walked the earth there has been a focus on the inventing of tools and technologies to better the quality of everyday lives, and a comparison of life through the different eras exemplifies the impact that new technologies have had on society. Delving into various “evolution timelines” of technologies provides us with important insight into how and why new technologies are developed, and the impact that these technologies have on society. Portable music devices are an example of a development that emerged from a social need, yet have had a significant cultural impact. Looking at this example and the perspectives of various theorists we aim to explore the initial impact that certain technologies have had on the development of society and ultimately how culture shapes new technologies and media forms.
Different theorist’s definitions of the term “technology” need to be looked at collectively, as there is not one explanation that can wholly encapsulate a true definition. Theorists have opposing views on what technology is, therefore their individual perspectives will always shadow their definitions to some extent. For example, Lorenzo Simpson’s definition of technology suggests it is “a constellation of knowledge, processes, skills and products [that aim to] control and transform”, this comes from a culture shapes technology perspective as it highlights that technology comes from the “knowledge, processes, skills, etc” of humans (Simpson, 1995). Where as another theorist, Arnold Pacey, adopts a technological determinist’s view, defining technology as “ordered systems that involve people and organizations, living things and machines”, implying that technology shapes societies, and people merely adhere to it (Pacey, 1983). Manovich claims that the introduction of “media” and “computing machines” were absolutely necessary for the functioning “modern mass societies”, and it is impossible to disagree with the significant impact that the numerical and media processing computer has had on how the world operates. In fact, it is almost impossible to imagine life in the 21st century had this technology not been developed. An interesting viewpoint in favour of technological determinism is that various historical eras can be defined by “technological distinctions” such as the “iron age” and the “industrial age” (Winston, 1995), this expresses technology as the defining factor that can be accountable for the development and advancements of cultures. Raymond Williams tackles these claims indirectly by arguing that technological determinists ignore the research and development that goes into these ideas, and that they are assumed to be “self-generating”. He goes on to mention that the “isolation” of the technology means it is sometimes difficult to see beyond the face-value and examine how and why a particular development came to be (Williams, 1974). In this respect, it is seen an easier to focus on the technology and ultimately how it solved a problem in society, rather than how society called for the development in order to solve the problem in the first place.
High demand is a sign of success for any business venture involving the introduction of new technologies, and the most effective way to attract a wide customer base is to fill a social gap or create a technology that will improve the quality of our everyday lives by making tasks easier, better or faster (Etzkowitz, 2002). This suggests that culture shapes technology in the way that social needs create the platform on which new ideas are conceptualized and eventually developed. Andrew Feenberg supports the notion that technologies are shaped by culture, in fact he believes that the development of technologies are “constrained by cultural norms” of which include “economics, ideology, religion and tradition”. He makes reference to an example of the labor force and the various technologies that are utilized within this industry that are designed to manipulate and control nature. In this particular cultural background of the “capitalist wage system”, the way technology is used to control nature is paralleled against the way that managements control workers. In this way, technologies are divided into groups that can be traced back to discoveries made regarding prehistoric cultures. The earliest artifacts that have been found imply that as long as humans have occupied the earth they have discovered new ways to improve their lives through the use of technologies. These innovations can be separated into two groups; the first being technologies that assist in the routines necessary for basic survival and ease of living, the second being technologies that assist with communicating with others. Interestingly, we could divide existing developments today, very loosely, into the same categories. Flew makes a similar point of highlighting three basic categories that are, “tools… to transform nature, enable social interactions and extend human capabilities” (Flew, 2008). Along with these early tools and artifacts from our early past, were tools of different kind, they were musical instruments that played a vital role in ceremonies, replacing language and the inability to record stories in a manner that would last (Cross & Morely, 2008). In this respect, music is considered as a natural form of communication, it has a significantly large influence on various cultures to the extent that the concept of “portable music” was conceptualized to accommodate for greater availability of music. With music being sent through telephone lines for audiences to tune into in 1876 marking the start of in-home access to music, we have seen the development from portable radios to the mp3 player to allow for ease of access. On one hand, it is viewed from a technological perspective that the invention of the radio (and the ability to broadcast music) is what made music a significant part of many cultures today. However, it is more feasible to suggest that music is what kept radio going, after the television was invented and made available to homes all over the world in the 1950’s, the radio audience suffered a step decline (Saari, 2006), yet radio had a competitive advantage over television as audiences could enjoy music-based stations while away from home.
The theories of technological determinists hit a boundary where technology can only shape culture when the particular society is willing to accept and adapt to the new idea. It is not viable to say that a technology can wholly affect a culture, as where there are new ideas there are skeptics. Looking at patterns among older generations we can examine this on a smaller scale. Elderly people are less likely to attempt to use a new technology, and even if they like the idea they find them hard to use (Wang, Rau & Salvendy, 2011). Whereas, there is undeniable evidence that technological developments exist in all cultures where the communities have noticed a need to design them. Winston refers to these as the “supervening social necessities” that drive ideas of technological advancements from concept to product (Winston, 1995). Further exploring the idea of ‘portable music’, we have established that music is, culturally, a form of communication, and the social need behind its conceptualization comes from the desire to listen to music on the go. The mp3 could vaguely fit either of the aforementioned categories (technologies that promote ease of living and communication) but outside of the norms that govern these groups. When we look at the trajectory of the iPod to iPhone development, we can see a better fulfillment of these categories with the development and implementation of the “Application” or “apps” system that provide tools for communication, entertainment and assisting with everyday life. This particular innovation added another dimension to the already-popular portable music device (West & Mace, 2007) and created space for itself in a market that was already full. When there is no social gap to be filled or cultural issue to be solved by technology, we often find developers entering the market with a different approach that is multi-dimension or multi-platform systems. These are combinations of existing technologies, the collaboration of different developments to create better efficiency for the user, this is attractive to audiences and creates the need to buy (Maghiros, 2009). The iPhone’s ability to replace the mobile, the mp3 player, the camera, the calculator, the street directory and so on, is one of the reasons for its great success and this can be demonstrated by Everett Rogers’ theory of “consumer demand and the diffusion cycle”. In the early stages of consumer demand the interested audience want “technology and performance”, but as the development becomes more available to the mainstream, or is diffused among a wider audience, the demand shifts to “solutions and convenience” (Rogers, 1995). This shows the strong impact that culture has on the success of new technologies as they cannot succeed and become implemented in a culture unless the audience deem the idea as useful enough to be necessary, and in turn embrace it.
When delving into the effect that the introduction of the mp3 player had on culture we also need to look at the trajectory of innovations that followed, and are continuing to follow today. Winston highlights the importance of examining context when looking at developments, however with the concept of portable music, its “evolution timeline” dates back to the 1800’s and since the initial innovation of sound recording we have seen endless developments arise for the purpose of access to music. Technological convergence can be held accountable for the development from mp3 players and mobile phones to the technology that is today known as the ‘Smart Phone’. Theorist Henry Jenkins puts an emphasis on the fact that convergence is not an occurrence in “media appliances”, but in the mind of the developers and ultimately among the consumers and their interactions with members of society (Jenkins, 2006). Convergence is, according to Jenkins, “an old concept taking on new meanings”, which is true of the mp3 player adapting to the ever-changing cultural trends, in which communication is key, that is, communication through the use of technology. There is a strong desire for technologies that enable us to “simulate” everyday life (Macedonia, 2000), the iPhone’s feature that is “Face Time” symbolizes this as it allows for a virtual face-to-face conversation through the use of cameras and video calling. This is ground-breaking for families to remain close despite being in different countries however it would appear that today’s culture simply enjoys the barrier that technology provides during forms of communication. This has lead cultural determinist’s such as Clifford Stoll to speak out against this trend of heavy reliance on technology in an effort to convince audiences that “life in the real world is far more [interesting, important and richer] than anything you’ll ever find on a computer screen” (Flew, 2008). Neil Postman goes further in criticizing the link between culture and technology in coining the term “technopoly” meaning that culture finds “authorization” in technology and that we “take orders from technology” (Postman, 1993). This view expresses the importance in remembering cultural roots, and the fear that technology may not only have a significant effect on culture, but it may become a culture itself provided that consumers allow a cross over to “virtual life”.
In conclusion, it is apparent that culture has the largest impact on technologies, as a development must be viewed as a business venture that cannot survive unless there is a social need or gap in the market. The evolution of the mp3 player to ‘Smart Phone’ expresses that while technologies do have an impact on cultures, this impact is often the solution to an issue raised by consumers and therefore, technology plays the role of a means of improving day-to-day life. Since the development of the computer and virtual storage system we have seen technologies that have changed the art of communication, although they have reduced the need for face-to-face contact, they have brought people closer together and have expanded our networks. This shows that technology does not so much shape culture, but enriches it, as culture is the foundation upon which technologies are built.

References
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