Agency is the relationship shared between enactments of humans and technology. This keyword can be exemplified while performing a search online. When typing in something to an online platform like Google, technology then reacts off of what the person has written to create the results that appear on their screen. Based on Tuesday’s class discussion, we often feel as though our search results are often being targeted towards us. As college students, search engines will alter results based on our location. The technology notices that its user has been on a college campus for a long time and comes to the conclusion that they are a student, thus giving its user results that appeal to academics. Nevertheless, agency does not work with technology alone. Technology is reliant on humans, creating a relationship where the user puts in information and the technology absorbs it to create a more personalized response that matches its user.
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Sometimes, looking at how something has agency or the type of agency that it has is not very straightforward. Many times, agency requires us to look at relationships to understand the full effect that it has. For example, a pencil’s agency can only be understood through relationship between it and the person writing and what the person wants to use the pencil for. Similarly, with media, its agency entirely depends on who is behind the scenes and what implicit biases or agendas they may have.