Notes from Chapter 14: Society and Technological Change

The ideas and examples referenced below are notes compiled by Robert Keel from his reading of Volti, Rudi. 2014. Society and Technological Change. 7th edition. New York, NY: Worth Publishers. They are intended for classroom use.

The Internet Age

The current revolution: The Internet, mobile devices, social media (Web 2.0)

• Free flow of information.
• Concern over protection of intellectual capital and personal information.
• Unequal access.

The Birth and Growth of the Internet

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• The first modern computer was unveiled at the University of Pennsylvania. (see Brief History)
• I, however, was not unveiled until 1952.
• DARPA (Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency: The Internet (ARPANET officially) came into being in September 1969 when a computer at the Stanford Research Institute was connected to a computer at UCLA and the first host-to-host message was sent.  By the end of 1969 four computers were on the net.
  • "Packets" and packet switching: maximized network capacity by using best routes and insured communication even if some routes were inoperable.
  • Intent was the transfer of data, but use as a communication tool between researchers quickly emerged.
  • By 1970: "e-mail" constituted 75% of traffic: "social construction."
• I was trying to stay connected to my life as I entered my senior year of high school in Maplewood, Missouri.  I went to UMR in 1970 where I found students could reserve time on the school's calculator.
• By the end of the 1970s: 16 nodes on university campuses, 46 were DoD.
• Other networks emerged due to growing demand: CSNET in 1982 (lower cost to join)
• Personal computers became a significant reality by the early 1980s and the Internet as we know it emerged in 1983.  I developed my skills as a woodworker and citizen on the edge-rejecting "technology," except for my saws, hammers, and drills of course.
• 1985: NSF "backbone" connecting 5 super computing centers to ARPANET and CSNET.
  • TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) and "hypertext" (Ted Nelson)
• The Internet grew to nearly 1,000,000 hosts, and in 1991 the World Wide Web was released (developed by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN).

• Hypertext transfer protocol: http
• CERN decides not to patent: The WWW was "open."
• Web becomes a universal repository.
• My woodworking stalled, and teaching work thrived. I was driving between 3 college campuses, teaching 8 to 10 courses of Introductory sociology, trying to help support an old house and a new daughter. 
• In 1992 Marc Andreessen designed a graphical interface called Mosaic (later to become Netscape) and the web rapidly grew from 623 websites in 1993 to 555 million in 2011. It keeps on growing.

• In about a year there were more than 65 million users of Mosaic.  Today, hundreds of millions use the Internet and the WWW. (A "census" of Internet connectivity by countries has been undertaken at regular intervals by Larry Landweber, Computer Science Department, University of Wisconsin - Madison, USA. Map 1991, Map 1997 Map 2014, and another)
• 2014: close to 50% of the world's population has some sort of access.
• WWW at 25 (March 2014) (Sir Tim Berners-Lee's comments)
• WWW Timeline.
• Not a solitary invention: e-Commerce.
  • Computers and networks.
  • Credit and debit cards.
  • Barcode readers.
  • Warehousing.
  • Transportation systems.
• Conflict and challenges:
  • Net Neutrality (see also and this).
  • Selective Internet Access ("walled gardens"): Portals (Apple, Google, Facebook)--narrowcasting

E-Mail and the Network Effect

• What was it like to send email in 1984?
• 2011: 3.146 billion e-mail accounts and 3 billion messages a day (another version).
• "Network effect," utility expands as number of users grows (mobile telephony effect). As more participate, more join.
• Convenience, rapidity, and accuracy.
• Spam (reverse network effect).
  • Advertising.
  • Trolling and scams.
  • Trivial messaging.
  • Email bankruptcy.
• E-mail--signifcant engagement, but social networking (22.7% of online time) and gaming (10.2%) far exceed time spent on e-mail.
• Many users turning to other modes of communication: IM, Twitter, social media.

Mobile Communications

• Mociology (Mobile Communication and China).
• 21st century development (iPhone, iPad, and all the other "smart phones" and mobile devices).
• Communication, GPS navigation, "The Age of Connection."
• "Networked, the New Social Operating System" (Lee Rainy and Barry Wellman, MIT Press, 2012)(review)
• 2011: 487.7 million smartphones sold, estimated to double by 2015. USA, 50% of mobile phones.
  • 2016: Smartphone Ownership and Internet Use
  • 2013:Tablet and eReader ownership.
  • 2013: Cell Phone Activities and internet use.
• Apps (2008-2011, 18 billion apps downloaded for iPhone).
  • Major industry.
  • What's really used (2011: 10 apps comprise 43% of use on Android. 50 account for 61%).
  • 25% used once.
  • 68% of smartphone owners use five or fewer each week.
• Developed versus developing nations.
  • Cell phones versus smartphones
    • Communication: family ties, economics, medical care.
    • In Africa: "mobile banks." (see also)
    • Transformative effect. (reading, full report, local copy)

More Digital Connections: Social Networks

• USA: 900 million hours a month
• People connecting to one another.
• Audience:
  • Radio: 38 years to reach 50 million.
  • Television: 13 years to reach 50 million.
  • Internet: 4 years to reach 50 million
  • Social networks:
    • Facebook 2004 a few dozen, 2011: 845 million, 2014: 1.23 billion
    • Twitter: founded 2006. 2014: 646 million.
• Impact on society and culture?
  • McLuhan's "Global Village."
  • Undermining person-to-person relationships (Sherry Turkle).
    • Alone Together (2011): "We expect more from technology and less from one another and seem increasingly drawn to technologies that provide the illusion of companionship without the demands of relationship. Always-on/always-on-you devices provide three powerful fantasies: that we will always be heard; that we can put our attention wherever we want it to be; and that we never have to be alone. Indeed, our new devices have turned being alone into a problem that can be solved." (in Volti, page 269, from "The Flight From Conversation," NYTimes, 4/21/2012). (see also, Turkle, Sherry. 1995. Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet. New York: Simon and Schuster.)
    • Absent presence (physically present, but attention is focused elswhere using internet connected technology (ICT), Gergen. 1991. The Saturated Self) and Present absence (not physically present, but included in co-present interaction of others via ICT Rainie and Wellman. 2012. Networked: The New Social Operating System.
    • Or, Connected Presence (using ICTs to enhance co-present interaction, Campbell and Park. 2008. "Social Implications of Mobile Telephony"). Similar to Castells notion of "the space of flows" and Giddens focus on "distanciation."
    • Yet, there has not been a decline in traditional relationships--what is displaced: eating, sleeping, watching TV.

Social Media and Social Movements

• Social networks can promote stability by connecting people together.
• They can also be tools used to challenge the status quo:
  • Create a sense of common purpose.
  • Form the basis for a group identity.
  • Serve as a communication channel.
  • Assist with scheduling.
  • Connect local groups to the global community.
• Collective action (flash mobs) on a small scale or a national movement.
• "Arab Spring" of 2011. (see also: "The Role of Information Communication Technologies in the “Arab Spring,” Ekaterina Stepanova, 2011; "Social Media and the Arab Spring," Sohail Dahdal, 2012; and a variety of others)
• Facebook and Twitter feeds to air grievances, organize demonstrations, coordinate, and inform.
• Nonviolent weapons.
• Enabling factor versus independent force.
• Communication technology assists with organization and coordination; it does not start or sustain.
• Digital communication can also be used to oppress: surveillance, plant bogus information to discredit. Their decentralized nature may serve to fragment.
• Less useful for long-term purposive action. Malcom Gladwell: good at constructing networks, but trouble with defining responsibilities, clarifying authority structures, and setting long-term goals.

Video Games

• Major component of online activity: apps and smartphones, computers, consoles.
• Adults and video games (2008). MMORPGs. College students (2003). Teens, Video Games, and Civics (2008).
• Big business: $16.6 billion in revenues in 2011 for games. $9.23 billion in consoles and accessories. Double the revenues of the music industry.
• Average age of gamer: 37. 53% are 18-50. Women 42% of gamers.
• 2011: 26.5% of games sold--"mature category." Violence as key to success ("Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3" had $775 million in sales for the first 5 days.)
• Similar concerns as with violence on TV. Correlations between playing violent games and aggressive behavior same as with TV.
• Males: action (not all "violent") and sports--prefer games where winning is important. Women: interaction and relationships.
• High level of realism: being used to train soldiers and police. Also require higher level of involvement than TV. May be more of a factor in stimulating violent behavior.
• Negative correlation between spread of violent video games and violence in society (catharsis?)(statistics on homicide and violent crime).
• Video game addiction (see wikipedia article).
• Gamification: behavioral change, education (TedTalk), and work (points, badges, rewards)

The Digital Divide (see also)

• Online access is fairly easy and accessible, however:
• There is another side to this story of burgeoning internet use. Pew Internet’s 2011 survey revealed various figures that show not everyone has adopted or has been able to adopt internet technologies into their lives:
• 22% of adults do not use the internet
• 39% do not use high-speed connections at home (2013)
• 41% do not use mobile connections
• 17% of adults and 25% of teenagers do not have mobile phones
• The explanations for these variances range from age to socioeconomic factors such as educational attainment and household income.
• “Digital differences” are evident in every demographic subgroup. Women are more likely than men to use highly social online activities such as email or social networking sites; older users are more likely than younger users to receive news, health, and government information; and African American and Latino users are more likely than white users to use nonvoice services such as texting and video sharing, listening to music, and playing games.
• Since there is no centralized control, the Internet is somewhat democratic--yet, the inequalities that persist in so many aspects of social life are reflected in online access within and between countries.
  • 2011: 78.6% of North Americans were Internet users, 13.5% of Africans (up to 15.6% in 2012). 2010: 95.6% of Iceland's population and 1.3% of Cambodia's.
• Developed versus developing nations.
• USA (2013): public access versus access at home. Data from 2010:
  • 71% have connection. Income: 93% over $100,000 versus 43% under $25,000.
  • 72% of white households versus 65% of African American and 67% Hispanic households. If smartphone access is included (slide 7), numbers improve, especially for African Americans and Hispanics (still, smartphone access is limited: "walled garden" and ease of use).
  • 70% urban versus 57% rural.
  • 49% with disabilities versus 69% all adults have broadband at home (slide 9).
  • 86% of all adults versus 59% of those 65 and older go online. 70% of all have broadband versus 47% of elderly.
• These digital differences represent a “digital skills” gap among demographic subgroups. A number of users lack what some might call “internet literacy” and “net smarts”.
• Income and education levels are associated with internet skills, and variations in skills result in an inability to use the internet effectively, which worsens social inequalities—the new “digital divide”.
• Who is Not Online (2013) and who is.
• Internet can empower, but you have to have access and make effective use. Future: may intensify rather than diminish existing inequalities.

Intellectual Property

• What is property and who owns it?
• File sharing, copyright, and payment of fees.
• VCR: it was thought people would be viewing prerecorded tapes rented from stores. Owners made their own. Supreme court ruled in 1984: home recording constituted "fair use."
• 1990s: musical recordings. Napster, 60 million users. Courts did not agree this was "fair use" (central database). New services emerge using network to connect peer-to-peer.
  • Drop in CD sales: probably not just due to "piracy."
  • 2011: entertainment industry tries Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect Intellectual Property Act in US House and Senate. Internet sites fought back and bills were withdrawn.
• Now, "fee-based services": iTunes, Rhapsody, Amazon. Apple had its 10 billionth iTunes download in 2010. Cheap music and "free streaming.
• Technological change--intimately connected to concerns over freedom, money, and power. Electronic Frontier Foundation (defending the balance).
• Everybody tracks everyone (Facebook in 2007, advertising and web histories, "cookies")

Privacy in the Digital Age

• Is anything online really private? Email as a post card versus a letter
• Social media use almost always leaves a record somewhere (Snapchat: files may be deleted on the servers, but copies probably still exist on the routers).
• NSA eavesdropping and datamining.
• "Keylogging."
• RFID tracking: passports, ID cards, credit cards, as well as products, animals, and just about anything else.
• GPS devices.
• Video monitoring (red light cameras, etc.).
• Drones and surveillance.

The Electronic Media in Modern Society

• Always have to consider the social context in which technological change occurs.
  • Financial backing and profit-making, not just "need."
  • Electronic media help mitigate impact of increase mobility on social and community ties.
  • TV and radio: common culture.
  • Internet: audience segmentation.
  • Virtual community versus face-to-face: what does it take to be a "friend?"
  • Are we becoming more "individualized" or....? (Technology: Embodiment, The Self, and Everyday Life)

Education in the Digital Age (and this from "A Vision of Students Today")

• Building a Blended Class

Technology and the Future:

• Predictions and Dreams.
• Digital Life in 2025.

Questions (pages 280-281):

1. For long-range communication, do you prefer e-mail or the telephone? Are some communications more suitable for e-mail and others for the telephone? Why? Are there times when a barrage of e-mail messages leaves you feeling overwhelmed and frustrated?
2. As noted in this chapter, most smartphone owners use only a few apps for their phones. Are you one of them? Have you downloaded some apps only to later delete them? Why?
3. Some of the most devoted designers and players of games have argued that game playing can impart many useful virtues such as cooperation with others, optimism, and feelings of leading a purposeful life. Do you agree? Do the benefits of gaming outweigh the drawbacks?
4. The rapid expansion of the World Wide Web has put vast amounts of information and entertainment within easy access. The Web also contains many sites that dispense pornography, gambling opportunities, and the ravings of hate groups. Although these sites can be blocked through the installation of filters, these are not completely effective and may limit access to important information such as AIDS awareness. Should efforts be made to limit the spread of "objectionable" material? How might this be done? What could be lost as a result?
5. Have you or any of your friends ever shared a file that was protected by a copyright? Did you have any qualms about doing so? Are the big media firms justified in treating file sharing as a criminal activity to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law?
6. How much do you worry about the potential and real loss of your privacy due to increasingly sophisticated technologies for eavesdropping, tracking, recording, and general snooping? Is the loss of some privacy a fair price for the increased communications capabilities made possible by today's electronic technologies?
7. Do you have a social network account? How many friends and associates do you have in your network? What is their relationship to friends with whom you interact offline?

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