Blog Post 2


The perspective I chose to discuss how the anxiety about the interactivity of new digital media in the article about Katherine is domestication of technology. From reading both the article and Baym’s text, it is clear that the concern and anxiety of interactivity of new digital media is not directly from Katherine, but rather the people observing her. Arguing the perspective of the domestication of technology, by Katherine using her phone the way she does it is clear that a technological object is deeply embedded in her everyday life. However, by Katherine not showing any anxiety about the interactivity of new digital media the domestication of technology cannot be argued, but rather the theoretical perspective of technological determinism can be due to what her observers are experiencing. I believe as to how the article is written and the generation the author and her father must be, technological determinism is the best framework to explain the anxieties about interactivity.

Katherine’s observers being her father and the author of the article, experiences different anxieties about interactivity through a technological determinism perspective. From the article discussing how Katherine is so obsessed with her phone and compares it to when her father was a child the demonstration of technological determinism appears. By having the author and her father identity the differences between their childhood and Katherine’s, it is evident that both individuals believe that machines are changing us. Another way technological determinism is demonstrated in the article is the concern of how new digital media are affecting children development. These anxieties associated with new media are provoked when a girl like Katherine “wants to get better at her phone” because her phone becomes a necessity to her everyday life. These can be determined through technological determinism by the author indirectly identifying how technology has developed and has changed the current generation.



Comments

  1. CS 371 Group 9October 3, 2018 at 1:12 PM

    Great post! I really liked your point about the anxieties are not necessarily coming directly from Katherine but from the idea of those observing her. The idea of being 'put on display' through these social media platforms can be stressful as you do not want people to criticize what you chose to post. The insecurity of not fitting in and not posting what others like is enough to create anxieties in anyone participating on these interactive platforms.

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