Technology defines how human beings interact among themselves and the environment in their daily life. This touches on almost all areas affecting human beings. This means that technology in increasingly affecting the human life. It can also be said that technology is so dynamic and keeps changing all the time. Technology is shaping the human life and in the recent past we have seen the rate at which it is transforming live is increasing. According to Daneen (2008), technological advances in areas of transportation, entertainment, finance, warfare, communication, sports, art, medicine and many others have continued to have an influence in the human beings either for the good or bad. Postman (2011) argued that the influence of technology in culture is not clear especially when you narrow down of who will win or lose from it. In a span of a very few years, the world has totally changed. If some of our grandparents who lived few years ago were to come to life, the world would be unrecognizable to them. However still, even our age this technology thing is always new to us and we continue reading and updating ourselves with it.
Culture can be defined to describe a particular group In terms of their social or customary beliefs. It describes their characteristics in terms of race, religious affiliation, class or social ranking. All these characteristics of a culture may influence or may be affected by technology. There are several relationships between culture and technology and may include environment, healthcare, education, communication and many more.
Pacey (1983) asserted that technology is essential to human beings. It is a moral thing or something that defines the lifestyle of human beings which can be used for well-being of for a wrong purpose. He continued to say that if we see anything wrong happening in the world like high infant mortality, hunger, chemical pollution, warfare like nuclear destruction, we use not blame it on technology but blame the policy makers and politicians. Indeed we have had such side effects of technology especially on the warfront and pollution. And in most cases we see politicians blame this on technology when in the real sense they are the ones to blame.
The culture of man and technology continue to evolve and change together as one. The main purpose of developing a technology is to be useful within a given cultural context. This is as a result of that culture changing given the given constraints affecting it and thus the need for a new technology. If that technology is to spread to another culture away from the one it was intended for, it has also been shown that it will affect or change that culture as well. And this cycle continues since the need for one leads to the development of the other.
Having had this argument for a long time on whether technology has a positive or negative effect on culture, on needs to stop and ask whether technology is neutral when it comes to culture. According to Pacey (1983), the answer to this is no. he argues that one cannot separate technology and culture. He argues that if a technology has to be of use, then it has to be compatible with the ideals and fit to solve the intended problem.
In the modern world today we might have the problem to connect to that culture which has widely been believed to be passed from generation to generation would have long been lost. This has a clear connection to the existence of technology that have ensured that these things have been preserved. Whether it is stories written on stone, or passed through the word of mouth, it has been made possible by the existence of technology. Daneen (2008) brought in an interesting argument that culture has been preserved by the fact that God gave all living beings the ability to adapt to nature. For mankind He gave them the power and the ability to make tools which were needed for their living. This attribute still goes back to technology being tied to culture and confirms the earlier argument that technology and culture cannot be separated. He supported his argument by saying that due to lack of natural tools, man had to use his intelligence to interact with his world. And through that interaction, he came up with such inventions that have for years now affected agriculture, warfare, how cooking of food, housing and even the development of language.
The environment around man has created the need for the development of technologies. Different regions with different geographical features and topographies pose different needs. These needs require solutions and thus technological inventions and innovations. Historians have drawn an example to this aspect in the development of agriculture in Mesopotamia. This development of agriculture in this area was possible because of the culture of the people at this area during this time. The early inhabitants of this area were hunters and gathers and therefore they were all well aware of their environment and therefore had learnt well on the planting and growing cycles of different plants. They also had the knowledge of which plants could do well where. According to Bruce (1995), the development of agriculture in this area was probably due to increase in population. The population increase led to the scramble and fights for the scarce resources for food. This was probably the need for the development of technology during this time. The interventions that they took here were in form of the development into cultivation behaviors in order to reduce the risk of food shortages. This having been repeated for a longer period of time, the human beings were able to select the different species of plants that they favored and considered food. All this happened because of the cultural context.
Religion have been used by man to explain many mysteries of life. Religion tries to explain why some things happen, happened or why they are the way they are. It is not easy to explain religion but it is universally understood. After the revolution of agriculture and animal domestication, man started the art of making statues and having some sort of religion. This was seen as some form of technological development. If you consider the whole process of making these statues and transporting them to where they were needed. This process greatly defined these cultures as religion defined the technological innovations to make the process easier. Ponting (1991) noted that it was by religion that Easter Island’s culture was shaped. At the same time, this religious technology led to its destruction. He further argued that the Island collapsed due to the massive degradation of its environment due to the deforestation. This destroyed their environment with which they depended for food and thus their culture. This is another good example for the relationship between culture and technology.
The other example of the relationship between culture and technology is what happened during the industrial revolution. What happened during that time, man developed the use of coal and steam as the source of energy. This was invented alongside the machines that were needed especially in agriculture. This moved further to be what was to be commonly referred to as industrial revolution. Historians have greatly documented these two great revolutions of agriculture and industrial. Both of them were advanced through cultural needs that led to the need for solution and hence technological advancement. What followed the industrial revolution was a cultural transformation of a society from agriculture dominant to industrial dominant. Each technological advancement during this period had a link with the specific cultural need that led to its advancement.
Culture is how people behave. Therefore, the people or man defines culture. Culture is the driving force of any technological development whether it is environmental, religious or industrial. Also it is important to note that these technological advancement have in turn shown that they have an effect on culture. Therefore we can conclude that culture and technology affect each other and as such they cannot be separated. This cycle where one defines the other has come to be the way of life of all mankind. From all sectors, everything and everyone is now embracing technology. There is no clear position on whether who or what loses or gains between culture and technology as both affect each other.
References
Postman, Neil. Technopoly: The surrender of culture to technology. Vintage, 2011.
Deneen, Patrick J. "Technology, culture, and virtue." The New Atlantis 21 (2008): 63-74.
Pacey, Arnold. The culture of technology. MIT press, 1983.
Bruce D. Smith. The Emergence of Agriculture. Scientific American Library. New York, 1995.
Ponting, Clive. A Green History of the World: The Environment and the Collapse of Great Civilizations. St. Martin's Press, New York, 1991
