Blog Post #2 - The Domestication of Technology
Through the concept of Baym’s theoretical perspective of the domestication of technology, the adaptation and adoption towards new media technologies are found evident within Katherine’s daily routines. Baym describes domestication of technology within her book, “Personal Connections In The Digital Age”. She introduces the domestication of technology as an approach towards technology and society being the influence towards new media technologies as they move from being fringe objects to meaningful objects used for everyday uses (Baym, pg.52, 2015).
From reading the article based on Katherine’s experience using technology and social media, we can see how her cell phone and the social media apps within have transformed from being a cold consumer good to a useful object necessary for her everyday use. We can see that Katherine’s cell phone has become more useful and convenient than the value of her own safety as she is browsing on Instagram before she puts on her seatbelt when she enters a car. Cell phones and uses of social media apps have been domesticated amongst Katherine’s peers as she defined her iPhone as the “place where all of her friends are always hanging out”. With this being said, the iPhone has become accepted by Katherine and her peers as its use are normalized in their everyday lives and have also changed their social interactions. Katherine’s social interactions have changed from the use of Instagram. Instagram for Katherine and her peers have become domesticated from its social actions amongst its users. Katherine’s generation has become self-conscious towards Instagram because the likes and comments of a picture or video are what matters more than just the enjoyment of the picture. Instagram has changed social interactions as the user’s prepare a post of a picture they believe will benefit their social hubs. Overall, we can see that Katherine has relied on the use of social media to replace her face-to-face communication with her peers as the article states that they rarely interact in person, but mostly through social media.
Moreover, Baym also mentions how there is a three-stage process for society to adopt new digital technologies. The three stages of this process consist of Euphoria, Moral Panic, resulting in the last stage, the Domestication of Technology. These stages are evident in Katherine’s ongoing experience with technology as she has fully accepted new technology at a young age. The stage of Moral Panic is shown in Katherine’s Dad as he currently is struggling to control Katherine’s use of technology and fears that it may be disregarding her from the values and traditions that new digital technology cannot simply provide.
Baym, N. K. (2015). Making new media make sense. In Personal connections in the digital age: Digital media and society series (2nd ed., pp. 52-57). Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
From reading the article based on Katherine’s experience using technology and social media, we can see how her cell phone and the social media apps within have transformed from being a cold consumer good to a useful object necessary for her everyday use. We can see that Katherine’s cell phone has become more useful and convenient than the value of her own safety as she is browsing on Instagram before she puts on her seatbelt when she enters a car. Cell phones and uses of social media apps have been domesticated amongst Katherine’s peers as she defined her iPhone as the “place where all of her friends are always hanging out”. With this being said, the iPhone has become accepted by Katherine and her peers as its use are normalized in their everyday lives and have also changed their social interactions. Katherine’s social interactions have changed from the use of Instagram. Instagram for Katherine and her peers have become domesticated from its social actions amongst its users. Katherine’s generation has become self-conscious towards Instagram because the likes and comments of a picture or video are what matters more than just the enjoyment of the picture. Instagram has changed social interactions as the user’s prepare a post of a picture they believe will benefit their social hubs. Overall, we can see that Katherine has relied on the use of social media to replace her face-to-face communication with her peers as the article states that they rarely interact in person, but mostly through social media.
Moreover, Baym also mentions how there is a three-stage process for society to adopt new digital technologies. The three stages of this process consist of Euphoria, Moral Panic, resulting in the last stage, the Domestication of Technology. These stages are evident in Katherine’s ongoing experience with technology as she has fully accepted new technology at a young age. The stage of Moral Panic is shown in Katherine’s Dad as he currently is struggling to control Katherine’s use of technology and fears that it may be disregarding her from the values and traditions that new digital technology cannot simply provide.
Baym, N. K. (2015). Making new media make sense. In Personal connections in the digital age: Digital media and society series (2nd ed., pp. 52-57). Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
Great post! I like how you pointed out that Katherine valued the convenience of her cell phone over her own safety when getting into the car. Not only is Katherine guilty of this but we see hundreds of people who risk their own lives for a better picture or a "selfie". A scary example would be in Toronto of the girl who risked her life to get onto a crane for a selfie. Or the amount of people who risk their lives everyday to "snapchat while driving" or take risky pictures. As a result of social media people take unreasonable actions for our neediness of acceptance on these platforms.
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