Eighth Grade and Technological Determinism - Katherine Fitzpatrick

  

The anxiety about the interactivity of new digital media alongside the perspective of technological determinism is shown by Kayla’s use of social media in the film Eighth Grade. In her book Personal Connections in the Digital Age, Nancy Baym very briefly describes the term technological determinism as, “machines change us” (27). She draws upon Nick Carr’s essay on Google, which attributes a decreased attention span and focus to increased time spent online. 


This is portrayed in the scene when Kayla spends a large portion of the evening on her laptop. She watches various pop culture videos, takes a Buzzfeed quiz, scrolls on Tumblr, watches Jimmy Fallon, and more. The internet provides access to such a vast amount of content in an instant, which provides her with endless hours of entertainment. Compared to reading a book, one is not bombarded with information in the same way. Although it is not shown how this impacts Kayla’s attention span specifically, it still demonstrates how she spends her spare time, and which videos she watches online. Further, she is passively consuming media in this scene, instead of actively interacting with others in person or online. 


Another example of technological determinism is the emphasis on Instagram in the film. Kayla spends a significant amount of her free time on the platform, and constantly looks at her classmates’ pictures. She seems to compare herself to them. Further, under the section “how to get more friends” in her checklist, leaving nice comments on people’s Instagrams is listed. This proves how large of a role Instagram has in teenagers’ lives, and how interacting with others online is paramount in starting friendships. 





                                                                        Works Cited 

Baym, Nancy K. Personal Connections in the Digital Age. Polity, 2018.

Comments

  1. Morgan BrownOctober 18, 2021 at 11:39 AM

    Hi!

    Great post! I agree that technological determinism is evident in the film, Eighth Grade. Social media encompassed Kayla’s life; as you pointed out, she spent hours of her free time on pop culture websites and ‘surfing the web’, doing nothing truly beneficial for herself. One of her main goals throughout the film is to gain popularity, and spending the majority of her time "passively consuming" content is not going to positively affect her social standing/social circle. Social media has this effect on lots of impressionable youth, demonstrating the effect that social media, the internet, and technology has on society; affecting how we interact with one another and how we choose to spend our time.

    I really enjoyed reading your post!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Shanna AllimanOctober 19, 2021 at 12:27 PM

    Hi,
    This was an intriguing post to read. You clear express how technological determinism is present in Kayla's life. Seeing as social media had such a huge impact on her life. Even when Kayla is eating dinner with her dad she spends the whole time on her phone scrolling through social media. She even gets annoyed at her dad for trying to start conversation. Technology is a machine that changes us and through your examples is can largely impact ones life.

    ReplyDelete

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