Reflection Four

Technological momemtum, or the progression of technology over time is a combination of technological determinism and social constructivism. Hughes tells us that a “technological system can be both a cause and an effect; it can shape or be shaped by society.” There are certain technologies which upon their development have reshaped society in a way that cannot be reversed. Hughes’s example was the automobile, and how it has changed the way cities are developed. The Phoenix area is a good example of this, as it has been built spread out allowing for more traffic. Other examples I can think of is the pager and eventually the cell phone. Before the inception of these devices, it was much easier to disconnect oneself from social networks. This has shifted, however, in that now the majority of people can be expected to be available or will be shortly, speeding up our interaction and communication. I live in a house and do not own a land line telephone, with the existence of broadband a regular telephone has no use for me, I use my cell phone for all the important phone numbers in my life and it is the way I can expect people to communicate with me. I think perhaps as the youngest generations become older, land line telephones will become even more obsolete, as the only use I can think of would be for faxing, however even then certain cell phones now include the proper connections to use them for transmitting this type of data. I think it will be interesting to see how the progress of personalized, individual communication continues.