by In David Nye’s “Technology Matters,” he discusses technology’s fundamental importance for humanity and social and cultural evolution. Nye makes the point that technologies are “inseparable” from human nature, and it has been this way since the first emergence of humans. The relationship between technology and human society and culture is a complex and rapidly-changing one. It is easy to think to yourself about the influences and impacts technology has made on your life. Phones are a perfect example of how technology affects social values and behavior. Most young people can relate to constant lectures from their parents about how phones have turned them into non-socials that avoid human interaction. Nye points out an unique perspective that changes the way the relationship between technology and social values can be thought about. The relationship is not a one way street; social values directly lead to new technological applications as well. Human societies and cultures are ever-changing, leading to a consistent call for technological innovations and inventions to be adapted into our lives.
Advancements in technology are a result of human’s decisions and actions that change the societies in which we live in. In Nye’s “Technology Matters,” he argues that “Technologies have been used for social evolution. Humans, in contrast, continually redefine their necessities to include more. Necessity is often not the mother of invention. In many cases, it surely has been just the opposite, and invention has been the mother of necessity.” I agree with Nye’s statement and recognize that there are plenty of examples in our current technological world that give context to this argument. The first example of this comes from food delivery apps, such as Uber Eats. Without the Corona Virus in mind, in today’s world, peoples’ schedules are extremely busy, which makes time very valuable. Food delivery apps are an innovative way to save time by not having to make your own meal or travel to get the food yourself. These apps have been wildly successful recently because they address this social value that so many humans have. Similarly, Peloton addresses common social values of a lot of people and has enjoyed a great success because of it. Even in prehistoric times where humans were pre-literate, humans were developing technologies or tools that allowed for further human development.
Peloton
(source: Business Insider)
Technology developers look to the issues and holes in society and current human values to determine in what field innovation should come about. The goal of the new technology they develop should be to allow for society to further develop as a result of their advancement. In this sense, social values give way to the next advancements in technology. Through modern and pre-historic examples, one can see that social values encourage new innovations or new options for development. Because of the great impact of technology, it is important that societies communicate on how they will deploy technology given that there could be serious ramifications for misuses.
Sources:
https://moodle.colby.edu/pluginfile.php/429146/mod_resource/content/2/3.%20Nye_Can%20we%20define%20technology%3F.pdf
https://www.jstor.org/stable/25147860?seq=4#metadata_info_tab_contents