\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Another set of theories about digital technology and how it affects us looks
\nat the affects of information technology on us from both sociological and anthropological
\nperspectives. These are more practical theories; more based upon how people
\nare using technology, how it is being used on them, and how they might be able
\nto affect the development of social and community arrangements to get the best
\nout of their technology.<\/p>\n
\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Some of the most useful parts of this theoretical stream centre on the way \u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n Technology as tool<\/em> can be a useful metaphor but technology goes far \u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n Technology as text<\/em> refers to applying critical theory to technology \u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n Technology as system<\/em> is a deep and all encompassing theory. I has \u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n Information Ecologies , as Nardi and O’day define them, can be summed as such, \u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n In a broader view, an “information ecology” can be seen to be analogous \u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n Let’s next look at some specific examples of media that is becoming digitized \u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n More: <\/a>Physical Properties don’t Change?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Metaphors: Tool, Text, System – Ecologies. \u00c2\u00a0 Another set of theories about digital technology and how it affects us looks at the affects of information technology on us from both sociological and anthropological perspectives. These are more practical theories; more based upon how people are using technology, how it is being used on them, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":27,"menu_order":5,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"withoutbars.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-98","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.digitalcobbler.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/98","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.digitalcobbler.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.digitalcobbler.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.digitalcobbler.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.digitalcobbler.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=98"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.digitalcobbler.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/98\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":190,"href":"http:\/\/www.digitalcobbler.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/98\/revisions\/190"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.digitalcobbler.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/27"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.digitalcobbler.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=98"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\ncitizens of western societies are being acculturated to the use of computers.
\nIn their book Information Ecologies<\/strong>, Bonnie Nardi & Vick
\nO’day contend that the technology industries have a bad habit of delivering
\nthe “rhetoric of inevitability (Nardi & O’day: . pg. 17)” which
\nlimits our thinking about how we should shape the use of technology in our society.
\nThe authors go on to point out that technological tools and other artifacts
\ncarry social meaning. And that this becomes integral to the tool itself. The
\ntelephone is a good example of this. Our use of telephone far surpasses the
\nimaginations of those who invented and installed the first phone systems. We
\nhave adapted telephone signals to include data and recorded messages; both sending
\nand receiving telephone calls with recorded voices. This is crucial to an understanding
\nof the digital cobbler: Cobbling together your digital environment is both a
\nway of understanding the social implications of technology and a way of implementing<\/em>
\nan understanding of these implications. Once again, a complete examination of
\nthese theories of technology are available from other sources but for our purposes,
\nhere is a summary of the theoretical underpinnings of Information Ecologies
\nby Bonnie Nardi & Vicki L. O’day (which is, of course, highly recommended):<\/p>\n
\nbeyond just a device to get something done. The social environment in which
\na tool is used makes a difference. Computers are far more complicated, flexible
\nand ambiguous than is a “tool” whose use is, for the most part, self-evident.<\/p>\n
\nin a similar manner as to written text. This theoretical approach can stumble
\nwhen information moves away from text-oriented documents and includes collections
\nor results that are based on some routine that the user has initiated.<\/p>\n
\nbecome a popular negative view of technology since Jacques Ellul wrote Technological
\nSociety<\/strong> in 1954. His is a powerful analysis of technology: that it’s
\nautonomous and proceeds without significant control by people.<\/p>\n
\n“the scale of an ecology allows us to find individual points of leverage,
\nways into the system, and avenues of intervention “(pg. 50). In an ecology,
\neach piece of technology, especially computers, have a “habitation and
\nname”. This “identity and place” within the ecology is only established
\nby the participants in that ecology, not by the creators of the tool, and it
\nis the participants responsibility<\/em> to find that place for them that
\nmakes sense (pg. 55). In this way, Ellul’s all-encompassing view of autonomous
\ntechnology is shown to be lacking. His view does not allow for this obvious
\nindividual and ecological<\/em> control of technology.<\/p>\n
\nto an information community or, as we like to call it, a “digital environment”.
\nAlthough the definitions of these theoretical places may not exactly coincide,
\nthere is sufficient overlap to see that our digital environment is a kind of
\ninformation ecology that we build for ourselves and those around us.<\/p>\n
\nand see how that changes our perspective of how we look at each of those media
\ntypes.<\/p>\n