Cultural and Technological Determinism Within Snapchat

Snapchat is a social media platform that relies on technology and users to send pictures, videos and messages to people all around the world. Cultural and technological determinism can be seen in relation to Snapchat as they ultimately reflect how people act in a social environment. Technology is understood to be “the driving force of culture in a society and it determines its course of history,” (“Technological Determinism”, 2016). Through the production of technology, we have been able to increase our interactivity with other sides of the world through the production of Snapchat. We are able to see different locations stories from various tourist attractions on the opposite side of the world through its public story feature. Snapchat has definitely had an effect on our culture as this form of social media has completely taken over. Although Snapchat’s motto is living in the now, Snapchat often causes people to be distracted from their environment around them and are immersed within this app on their phone. However, this communication over Snapchat is not forced upon people: “man creates technology and choses to use them,” (“Technological Determinism” 2016). Social media platforms like Snapchat are not forced upon people but instead they are chosen to be used by individuals. Snapchat obviously allows communication flow between different people but it also revokes physical and verbal forms of face to face communication. For example, when at restaurants I often see people on their phones, taking snaps instead of verbally interacting with each other when they are right before them. Overall, cultural and technological determinism work together to create a society revolving and growing around technology while establishing cultural values and social structure. 

References:

Technological Determinism. (n.d). 2016. Retrieved from https://www.communicationtheory.org/technological-determinism/