Technological Determinism in the film Eighth Grade

     In the film we watched in class, Eighth Grade, the theoretical perspective of technological determinism is highly noticeable throughout the movie. Simply put, technological determinism can be defined as the idea of how important technology is and its effect on our everyday lives. Kayla, who the film is primarily centred around, is an active user of many social media platforms such as Youtube and Instagram. In her online life, she is confident and outgoing. However, in her personal life it seems that Kyla does not posses the same conversational skills she portrays online and is more shy, awkward and less talkative. 

    Technological determinism actively represents what is going on in the film Eighth Grade as it shows how today's youth may lack certain social skills. Throughout the film, we see how students are constantly on their phones, unengaged with the actual world and instead living through their screen. We see this in today's society primarily through popular platforms such as Youtube, Instagram and TikTok as individuals may spend hours upon hours mindlessly browsing these sites. Additionally, in our current contemporary society, the idea of having more followers online instead of real life connections is becoming the desired goal for many young individuals. 

    Even I can personally say that I rely on technology and social media a bit. Sometimes I may just be sitting around doing nothing and just mindlessly open my phone, click on Instagram and click out immediately. It's almost as if I am just addicted to opening and closing the app. For today's youth, adopting these tendencies at such a young age could be detrimental to their development. As our world continues to progress more digitally, the idea of your Instagram or Twitter feed being your life portfolio is becoming more relevant. This may cause anxieties in individuals as they feel they must portray themselves to a higher standard to match those that they look up to online. 

What do you feel may be some pros and cons to our society turning more digital? Do you feel that social media can act as a platform to better our society for the future? and finally what may be some of our concerns with today's youth and their increasing reliance on technology?


Comments

  1. AnonymousOctober 11, 2021 at 9:13 AM

    I feel like there are plenty of pros and cons to our world becoming digital. Kids growing up today aren't acquiring proper social skills and people rely on their phones to communicate with others instead of in person. The list goes on and on. Yet, on the other side, during the COVID-19 lockdown, people were able to be educated, work and socialize thanks to technology. I believe the pandemic has been a turning point for plenty of things, one being how much we miss being with others and having new experiences. Hopefully, this feeling will make society want to remove themselves from their virtual life and begin to live in the real one instead.

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