Cybernetics and its cultural impact

 “Cybernetics is, fundamentally, concerned with control and communication and the relationship between a mechanism and its environment.” (Shaw, D. 2008. P89)

According to Shaw in the above quote, cybernetics is the relationship between a mechanism and its environment.  This means that an example of cybernetics could be the relationship between a technological advance, and the consumers who use it.  The relatively new social networking websites such as Facebook and twitter are a staple of the cultural impact of cybernetics and our ever changing relationship with technology.

Shaw compares the biological coding in our DNA and how our bodies work to how “radios transmit patterns of sound and televisions transmit patterns of light.” (Shaw, D. 2008. P89) To explain, humans have DNA which defines their physical attributes and characteristics, while technology has coding principles which control how it works.  But New Media has introduced an age where humans and technology are combining to create what some theorists are referring to as ‘cyborgification’.  As humans, we currently use technology in our lives to further enhance our experiences, for example we use Facebook to talk to and meet new people whom we would never be able to communicate with without technology.

However, our DNA may be our genetic code for how we look, our physical attributes, but our behaviour and personality is shaped by the environment in which we live.  Coding in technology controls how it works, but it cannot control what it is used for, that is down to its environment; us as consumers.  In this technological age consumers can change how technology is used, what it is used for, and even shape how it is updated.  For example ‘hashtags’ on Twitter were implemented first off by the Twitter community, and were later written into the code as an official function, recently Facebook has seen an update which facilitates the use of hashtags in the same way they are used in twitter.  These functions were never originally written into the code of these websites, but consumers implemented them regardless, thus, the technology changed due to the consumers.

  

Bibliography

Shaw, D. (2008) Technoculture: The Key Concepts; Oxford Berg Press (P.81-102)