Although the roots of the word focus on the nature of knowledge and its position in the establishment of hierarchies of knowledge, the rise of new technology after the seventeenth century transformed the definition of the word. Technology became the umbrella term to identify products that embodied knowledge related to industrial production. Tangible products of knowledge, like machines, soon took on the label of technology as they served as symbols of technological processes. In modern day, technology has come to be associated with several meanings, though each of its meanings relate to knowledge and science. Although the reading suggests that technological change and social change are synonymous with one another, studies on new technology have actually proved this to be inaccurate. Social media and search engines have proved to perpetuate social divides because their algorithms are designed to respond to dominant ideologies, which typically reflect hegemonic norms. Although technology has allowed for underrepresented minorities to become visible through media and has greatly expanded our methods of communication, harnessing the power of technology to heal social divides is still something we as a society need to figure out.
I think that it is very apparent in social media to see that the created divisions are being continuously promoted. I think that because social media constructs itself around the user, the user will not be able to view posts that are ‘out of their interest,’ which creates further division. I think that this is an extremely negative impact of social media because then, the user will become narrow minded towards things they dislike, or are unaware of. Such that, as if it’s adding fire to fire, the user only sees posts of their predicted interest, and are unaware of posts outside of that. And in a negative influence, the unawareness of these posts creates many divisions in social media.
While social media and search engine technology have maintained a sense of social divide, I think it is fair to say that in some ways technology is synonymous with social change. Medical technology is a continuously growing industry, and its advancements over time have proven to benefit our society and its demographics. The COVID vaccine for example not only prompted millions of people to think not only of their own health, but the health of the country. Thousands of medical professionals voluntarily assisted with the administration of the vaccine and our country cumulatively has been working on fighting the pandemic together. However, going back to your point made, looking back at search engine and social media, the pandemic has been a prime example of social divide fostered by this form of technology.