Technology and People

New Media exists because of technology, it only exists as New Media when it’s viewed using technology like a laptop or a mobile phone. We are almost inseparable from this technology in that it’s increasingly difficult for us to live without it in some way. This goes hand in hand with a media saturated culture, both New Media and technology are everywhere around us, even in the more mundane things like the operating systems in your phone are all graphics based user interfaces that the user interacts with.
We created technology and how we use it changes us as we continue to improve technologically and create new things. The discovery of the circulatory system by William Harvey has shown us that technology grants us a better understanding of ourselves and with that we can create new technologies that influence other aspects of our lives (Shaw, 2008, pg.81)

We think of technology as an extension of ourselves, how we present ourselves online can be tailored to our wants through the use of this technology, be it edited photos or through the use of computer generated avatars that can be male or female regardless of which we are in reality, or even through the aspects we present on social networking sites. These versions of ourselves aren’t separate from us but are part of us.

In a world with technology infiltrating every aspect of our lives, the old ways of dividing people into classes of race and gender, among other things, start to become irrelevant and “These divisions are increasingly difficult to maintain” (Shaw, 2008, pg.87) Divisions like these in society are fading away quicker and quicker, especially in online spaces where we represent ourselves as we please and this will trickle into real life and hopefully change the way we think and our culture even further than it has done already.

Bibliography

Shaw, D (2008) Technoculture: The Key Concepts, Oxford Berg Press