Unfortunately I was unable to attend the symposium for this week, however, I did read through the discussion points and thought I’d have a go at answering one of them for myself.

With this, I strongly think that the context of the society that produces a technology is definitely embedded into that technology in a lot of ways. Ideologies and particular values shared by a society help inform the creation and invention of new technologies. This concept refers to the cyclical co-dependence, co-influence, and co-production of technology and society upon the other (technology upon culture, and vice-versa). After conducting my own research, it is clearly understood that this relationship has occurred from the dawn of humankind, with the invention of simple tools, and it continues into modern technologies such as the printing press and computers.The development in modern mobile phone technology, like increasing speed of phone processors, the use of touch-enabled screens, and the implementation of mobile internet access, are further examples of this cycle of co-production. Society’s desire for widespread, frequent, and easy access to communication lead to the research and development of an ever widening range of mobile phone capabilities. Access to these capabilities, in turn, has had huge influence on the the way humans live.Within this, there is also the impact of societies values on the way in which technology is used. Continuing with my example of the mobile phone, I guess I can say that such technological devices are mostly used in reflection of the values of the society they were created in and for. People use mobile phones to call, text, book appointments, online shopping, etc. The list of uses is endless. And yet, each use of the mobile phone comes with the idea of a value shared by society. These values seep through in all uses, and embed themselves in the day to day lives of people and their mobile phones.

(… okay so maybe not the clearest explanation of my thoughts here, but I tried my best!)