EDUCATION, TECHNOLOGICAL DETERMINISM AND NEW MEDIA

Technological determinism is the belief that technology is the principal initiator of the society’s transformation. The emergence of this theory is usually attributed to the American sociologist Thorstein Veblen, who formulated the causal link between the technology and the society. According to the supporters of technological determinism, any social changes are controlled by the technology, technological development, communications technology and media. The modern information society arises as a result of the development of innovations, new technologies and their social and political implications. Since the establishment of this direction in the early 20th century, two different branches separated: radical and moderate (hard, soft) technological determinism. According to the radical version, the technologies represent a prerequisite for changing the society, the second branch regards the technology only as a key factor that may or may not mean a change. Today, we can quite confidently say that the Internet and the nature of the new media is fundamentally changing the structure of the society. The expansion of computers, networks and the Internet has radically changed many aspects of not only human communication, but also the entire society’s life. The rising popularity of new media has changed the nature and the way our society and the individuals act – the way we do the shopping, recruit staff, pay taxes, use the library, gain academic degrees and educate ourselves.

Through a philosophical analysis, the text examines the nature of contemporary technological determinism, the features of the new media and the method they use to affect the creation and distribution of information and knowledge in the education process.