Technological Determinism:
A Critique
By: Amy Schick
Marshall McLuhan said that "inventions in technology invariably cause cultural change." As opposed to Karl Marx's theory of economic determinism where production makes changes in history, McLuhan's theory of Technological Determinism said that changes in modes of communication evolves human experience. He divided all of human history into four different periods: a tribal age, a literate age, a print age and an electronic age. Each period began because of new developments in communication technology. The Phonetic Alphabet began the literate age, the Printing Press began the print age and the Telegraph began the electronic age.
Technological Determinism is typically an example of a Humanistic Theory, but I believe it can apply to a Scientific Theory. There are five standards that can be found in a scientific theory: Explanation of the Data, Prediction of Future Events, Relative Simplicity, Hypotheses That Can Be Tested and Practical Utility. They explain the past and present, and predict the future. There are three criteria that are found in a good scientific theory: simplicity, testability and usefulness.
A good scientific theory explains an event or behavior. Technological Determinism describes what happened in the past with the four periods of human history. McLuhan uses three different technological developments to show the transition into each new period. It draws order out of chaos and helps us to focus on what is important and ignore what isn't. By focusing on the period, the technological development and the dominant sense receptors of the time, McLuhan simplifies the changes culture has made. It also explains why something happened. Why something happened is as important as what actually occurred. Each new period was pushed from one to the next because of each new technological development. Although the inventors did not know it at the time, their invention made a major impact on human history.
Scientific theories predict what will happen. It can't say what will happen with absolute certainty, but it can make predictions based on past tendancies. Technological Determinism doesn't do a very good job of describing what will happen in the future. McLuhan discusses politics, education and sex and drugs as changing media, but he doesn't talk about what they will do in the future, only what they have already done. This theory does a good job of analyzing what happened in the past and what is happening now, but not what might be the future in communication.
Simplicity is important for a scientific theory. It is easy to get caught up in a big, complicated theory, but it is best to keep scientific theories simple. People are criticized when they offer a simple solution to a complex problem, but sometimes that leads straight to the truth. Technological Determinism is a simple theory. It is very straightforward on the different periods of time and what began each period. McLuhan describes each period and its characteristics. Media being hot or cool is not very simple. I don't think it really makes sense or is relevant to the theory. It seems almost thrown into the theory about how communication changes human existance. The fact that something might be "hot" or "cool" has nothing to do with different ages of communication.
Scientific theories can be tested. If a prediction is made that turns out to be wrong, there should be some way to show what has made it wrong. McLuhan's theory can be tested because it is obvious to see looking back at history what changed one era to another. The only problem that can come from this is the fact that the theory is simply his opinion. McLuhan thinks that modes of communication changed society, but Karl Marx's theory of economic determinism says that modes of production are what made changes in humanity.
Finally, a good scientific theory is useful. It should offer practical help. Through media, this theory is useful to understand the past and understand what is going on right now. With the exception of the hot and cool media, this theory is useful. This theory helps to make a little more order out of the chaos of why humans change the way we do. By using modes of communication to explain the changes in history, he takes a different point of view that is easy to understand. McLuhan describes media through the changes in the exposure of politics, education and sex and drugs. These have been so much more prevalent in the media as the years have progressed, and McLuhan tries to explain them to make his theory more useful.
Here are more examples of critiques given by different people dealing with McLuhan and his theories...
Excerpt from Arthur Kroker's Technology and the Canadian Mind called "Digital Humanism: The Processed World of Marshall McLuhan"
Discussion by Benjamin Symes of McLuhan's "Global Village"
Jamie Rowse's "Media and the Global Village: Myth or Reality?"
Link to BRANDY'S title page
Link to CAROL'S examples and applications
Link to GREG'S research report
Link to BRANDY'S links page
Look at Inco 234 Winter Workbook 2000 for more information of many different Communication Theories
Look at a critique of Agenda Setting Function. This theory analyzes the different motives people have for watching television. It discusses how media influences where we focus our attention. Technological Determinism says that different inventions in communication have shaped history.
Source: Griffin, Em. A First Look at Communication Theory. New York: McGraw-Hill Company, 1997.