Summary and Reflection
1. “Parchment, Printing, and Hypermedia”
By Ronald J. Deibert
Early ‘Medium Theory’ – Changes in modes of communication affect on social evolution and values & beliefs of societies regardless of context and messages in the society.
‘Technological Determinism’ – Technology is the sole reason to occurrences in the society. So, if the base or material instrument of technology changes, every factors, like superstructure, ideas, and behaviors will be changed. But, Deibert explains some drawbacks of technological determinism, with social constructivist point of view, which means it needs socially constructed needs and unexpected situations. In other words, changes of mode of communication favors in a certain social forces and work in a unique way in that environment.
With distributional changes, Deibert explains ‘the changes to social epistemology’, which means that changes in communication affects ‘internal’ world of ideas and ways of thinking. So, communication environments select ideas, modes of cognition. For example, the code of communication, like writing, changes, the abstract thinking of people becomes possible because words and ideas can be more manipulated than oral society.
And Deibert connects Ecological Holism and Medium Theory, which means nonreductive, evolutionary medium encompasses on dynamics of human and technological interaction than simple monocausal relationship. Ecological Holism is explained that human existence is evolving and interplaying between environmental and technological conditions, formal and informal institutions, and so on.
Especially for me, this article gave me an impression of the relationship between technology and the society seems similar to the loving relationship between man and woman. If two people fall in love, there can not be only one person’s emotion, but it needs so different factors for building up the relationship. For example, if I meet a man on the street and fall in love with him, is that just because I was walking on that street or only because he loves me so much that’s why I love him? I don’t think so. So many background situations and factors work on the relationship between two people.
Also, the result of technology’s working on the society can take an example of a baby between two people. If man and woman has a baby as a result of their love, can you expect how the baby will grow with a certain character or a certain path which he/she will go through? No. Then why not? Because the baby will have a certain timing, a certain experience in a certain situation. Same as the technology, I think.
Printing can be considered to be a reason to bring ‘Renaissance’ or ‘Modern civilization’. But is it a sole reason? I think all the factors, like educational level of the people at that time, religion, previous experience in that situation, etc. worked on it, I think.
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I think your analogies of romantic love and children are very interesting. As you say, as spontaneous as a love relationship my seem between two people, there is a history and social context both of them bring to the relationship that makes it possible for something new to thrive. At the same time, their child, because it IS new and unlike anything that has come before, will have unexpected effects and consequences for the context into which it is born. So, too, argues Deibert, goes technological innovation; it springs from a complex context, not out of nowhere, and ALSO has unforeseen effects. I like it.
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