Barbara Jarabik considerations about culture and technology synergy these days : For better or worse, we’re living in a technology-driven world. The rapid diffusion of new communications technology and the internet has brought by a drastic global impact on socioculture. Since the internet showed up on the scene in the ’80s and ’90s, it became accessible to the average family in the early 2000s, and eventually began to fit into our pocket with the development of smartphones. Societies around the world have witnessed such a phenomenal proliferation of communication devices that are stimulated by the internet, like computers and smartphones. Most societies are involved in this technological experience, and are very excited about its positive impact.
Technology and society or technology and culture refers to cyclical co-dependence, co-influence, co-production of technology and society upon the other (technology upon culture and vice-versa). This synergistic relationship occurred from the dawn of the humankind, with the invention of simple tools and continues into modern technologies such as printing press and computers. It has always been a matter of topic whether technology is boon or bane for the society. The impact of technology on our culture, tradition and social values is undoubtedly huge and classified as how it effects our society today and how it influence human activities.
Most of these technologies come in a structural way of mapping the world or in other words, the logics like a parent-child relationship, we can observe this in any of the databases, programs or knowledge management systems. Now, since we can see that there are around 6 billion people who use this kind of a technology of mobile phones with very diverse perspectives. We have to collectively rethink the underlying codes that run the technology (Ash, 2013), so we can observe that it is not only technology that shapes culture, but culture also shapes technology.
Technology influences society through its products and processes, which consequently influences the quality of life and the ways people act and interact. On the other hand, social needs, attitudes, and values also influence the direction of technological development. For societies to thrive and evolve, technological innovations have become necessary. It has evolved over the last centuries from simple tools such as stone tools and basic books to complex genetic engineering, smart machines, and information technology such as TV, computers, and cell phones. As technological systems are invented by humans, they reflect the very essence of a population’s needs and culture. See even more info at https://medium.com/@barbarajarabik.
Vision plays a major role in determining how a technology can grow or be used. Every culture has something very unique and different from the other culture and hence a very different approach to technology, in the olden times, people were not connected and hence what used to be a vision in one culture used to be a technological marvel in the other culture, this can be seen in the case of airplanes. In the Indian culture the concept of a flying machine has been a tale for thousands of years (Childress, 1991) and it was not until Leonardo da Vinci drew a few drawings inspired by pigeons the idea came into the notice to a different culture, in the end credit goes to the developers and the researchers, who developed the aeroplane (Childress, 1991).