Blog Post #2- Technological Determinism in the Guardian Article & Eighth Grade

    Technological determinism is the key concept within both the film Eighth Grade, as well as in the Guardian Article. The use and overuse of social media in our new digital world has produced an entirely new set of challenges users must face. As the Guardian article discusses: anxiety, depression, and eating disorders are all examples of the mental health repercussions individuals- particularly teen girls- cope with as a result of Instagram use (Gayle, 2021). The article explains how the idea of constantly being surrounded by images depicting the perfect life can create harmful repercussions on one’s mental health. This notion is also depicted in the film Eighth Grade, where Kayla becomes consumed with how she feels she has to present her life on social media. As an avid social media user myself, I can attest to how these harmful side effects of social media exist, however, I also recognize it is important to not presume a technological determinist mindset. 


     Technological determinism is a complex and multifaceted theory. Last year I took a course called Technology and Society where we spent a lot of our time discussing this notion of technological determinism. My professor explained that the notion of technological determinism is the ideology that technology operates outside of culture and acts upon it. Essentially with this mindset, you are making the argument that technology is the cause and culture is simply an effect of that cause (Roderick, 2020). This notion is of course not true, as humans are the ones who create technology, therefore how could it have all this power on its own to operate outside our culture? Nancy Baym also explains the complexity of the term in her book Personal Connections in the Digital Age. Baym outlines how technological determinism is this belief that technologies transfer their characteristics to us, stating “direct effects are also tied to thinking of technologies in a simplistic way: the more you use them, the more they use you, and the more you are influenced by them” (Baym, 2015, p. 29). It is important to be mindful and educated on the effects of social media, however, to also not assume a technological determinist standpoint, thinking that technology determines what the outcome should be. 


Building on this notion of technological determinism, do you think we should be placing all the blame on our technologies and social media networks for causing mental health-related issues, or should we start to look at the people responsible? 


Further, how do you think we can begin to move away from the technological determinist ideology?



Works Cited:

Baym. N, (2010) Personal Connections in the Digital Age, Retrieved October 13, 2021

Gayle, D. (2021, September 14). Facebook aware of Instagram's harmful effect on teenage girls, leak reveals. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/sep/14/facebook-aware-instagram-harmful-effect-teenage-girls-leak-reveals

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