Technology: an uncontrollable monster?

By Matthew Gillis

Overwhelmed. This is the only emotion I can distinguish after reading the introduction to Douglas Rushkoff’s Program or be programmed: Ten commands for a digital age.  I keep coming back to the same question: do the digital technologies we willingly choose to be a part of actually have control over our individual realities?

To put this uncontrollable digital monster into a more manageable context, I’ll use photography. When I take a picture, the lens in which I’m looking through presents a portion of the world. I, being the photographer, am able to choose what aspects of the scene I want shown in the frame of the image. These deliberate decisions reflect my position as the producer of each image and show my role in constructing a new or altered reality for the viewer of these photographs. I have the ability to omit or highlight aspects of the scene.

As a photographer, I am responsible for both understanding how to use the camera and also how to produce my desired image, because I am shaping a potential viewer’s idea of reality. I am in agreement with Rushkoff, who similarly believes we are responsible for knowing how to use technology and being able to program, or create, it. Photographers are creating “reality” through images, while programmers are creating technology that is able to think and operate, controlling our realities and, ultimately, us (Rushkoff 21).

If we choose to ignore that photos aren’t necessarily reflections of true reality, we choose to be falsely influenced. Doesn’t this seem similar to Rushkoff’s idea that failing to understand programming of technologies, which control our realities, is choosing to be programmed?

Going back to my original question, I have come to an answer: yes.

I think it’s our duty as consumers of technology to be able to discuss the function of technology. If it’s our job as a society to shape each technology’s use and meaning, according to “What’s New About New Media?,” then isn’t it equally our responsibility to be able to understand how to use it and how to create it?