Tutorial will be in Vari Hall 3017 this week. The topic? "Technological determinism."

This week's tutorial will be in Vari Hall 3017 at the regularly scheduled hours: 10:30-12:30.

[A great resource on technological determinism.]

Please be prepared to discuss all readings to date (see fall syllabus), up to and including the readings for the Oct. 18 lecture. We're also going to discuss the Oct. 18 lecture specifically, so look over your notes and read up on some of (or all, if you can) Christine's links for her Oct. 18 lecture.

In particular, think about what "technological determinism" means. See if you can come up with some contemporary examples of technologically deterministic ways of looking at the world from your everyday life. How do you do this? Well, think of the media you watch, hear, read. Think of how you talk about your technologies to your friends and family. What assumptions are you making? What ideas/ideologies are presupposed when you mention or talk about the technologies that you encounter every day? Do you ever find yourself thinking that your technologies make you do certain things or act in certain ways? Do you ever find yourself saying thinks like "My cell phone rules my life!", "I'm bombarded by email," "The internet has created a more democratic world," or "The car is responsible for urban sprawl"? If you have then you've been engaging in technological determinism. Don't be too quick to judge these statements, though. These statements are not necessarily "wrong" ways of expressing or thinking about your life. They're not completely invalid, they do speak of some sense of our contemporary, technologically-saturated reality. Having said that, the statements do obscure something. What do they obscure? What if we were to amend these statements slightly and, instead, state them in these ways: "I use my cell phone a lot and it rules my life," "I find myself constantly responding to email," "There is a possibility for improving forms of democracy by integrating the internet into democratic processes," and "Relying too much on the car has been, to a great extent, responsible for urban sprawl." What's different about these statements from the previous ones and what makes them less technologically deterministic? There's a common factor that fundamentally changes the sense of the latter statements. Can you guess what it is?

Also, if you'd like, bring an article from a local newspaper or a magazine or even a book that talks about whatever it talks about in a technologically deterministic way. Reading the Chandler article will clarify what the term means and what thinking in a technologically deterministic way is. Finally, think about the political/social issues that might be facilitated or hindered by looking at the world through technologically deterministic lenses.

Please also read Foundations, Chapters 7 and 8 on researching electronic and print sources.

Finally, for those of you that want to have a chat with me after tutorial on any course material or course survival/success issues, I'll be available right after the tutorial for the hour leading up to my office hours. I'll also be holding my office hours in Founders 162-164 between 1:30 and 2:30.