Technological Determinism of the Eighth Grade

     The experience of Kayla in the movie Eighth Grade exhibits one of many different theoretical perspectives that connect Kayla to her use of social media and digital technologies. Technological determinism was one of the perspectives that were thoroughly shown throughout the movie with Kayla using a copious amount of social media sites like YouTube for uploading videos and Instagram for interacting with her fellow classmates. We slowly start to see how technology starts to affect her life in a way that she becomes entranced through the screen of her phone. The use of Instagram for example was used by Kayla to escape reality and pretend like she was with her school crush. This escape made her unaware of the fact that her dad was trying to speak to her by knocking on the door, making her become surprised to the point of throwing her own phone. The use of Instagram has provided Kayla with an escape from reality and helped her cope with the world around her. The movie highlights the importance of the effects of technological determinism on individuals like Kayla where social media may reign over their life and affect how they behave.


Have you ever let social media affect you in the same way it did Kayla? Is technological determinism a necessary force for
the development of social media?

By Spencer Tran

Comments

  1. Josh DOctober 15, 2021 at 10:14 AM

    Hi Spencer

    Thanks for the post! I completely agree with your stance that the way she uses technology affects her life in a way that she becomes entranced through the screen of her phone in ways such as trying to escape reality and pretend like she was with her school crush. In response to your question, yes, social media did affect me in a similar way to Kayla’s experience. It came to a point where it was really affecting my ability to focus on school and work where I decided to delete my Instagram account and I must admit I am way more productive now than I was before. In response to the second part of your question, I would have to say that technological determinism is not a necessary force for the development of social media. In my opinion, it is not necessarily a ‘force’, but rather an opinionated theory. Once could also take the counter-theory and take on a social-determinism theory which instead perceives technology because of the society and its social forces in which the technology is developed.

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