In ten pages this paper examines media technology such as TV and the Internet through technological determinism perspectives. Six sources are cited in the bibliography.
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shaping our society. What we will try to determine in this paper is the usefulness of this concept in explaining the development
of media technologies. We will also attempt to answer the question of whether technology drives history or the other way around by examining to mass media technologies -- television
and the Internet. Our overall feeling or hypothesis in this paper is that the definition of technological determinism is not really useful
at all when it comes to developing media technologies or the way society reacts to them. While technological determinists certainly make some good points in their arguments, many of
these arguments have some obvious holes, which we will introduce throughout this paper. Definition First of all, in order to determine the
usefulness of the concept of technological determinism, it would be helpful to analyze the definition. The concept behind technological determinism is that technology overall is regarded as a prime mover
in history (Chandler, 2000). Technological determinists tend to interpret technology as the basis of society for the past, present and future (Chandler, 2000). In other words, the belief
of those who pursue technological determinism in its most extreme form believe that society is determined by technology -- that new technologies transform almost every level ranging from social interaction,
to behavior of institutions and individuals (Chandler, 2000). The idea of technological determinism was first introduced by Marshall McLuhan, who believed that
technology is very simply an extension of mankind (McLuhan, 1994). " Western man acquired from the technology of literacy the power to act without reacting," he writes (McLuhan, 1994, p.