Sociology (9690) | Digital technologies

Hello Future Sociologists!

Welcome to the notes for the "Digital Technologies" chapter! This area of Sociology is exciting because it deals with the world you live in every single day. We're moving beyond old machines (covered in 3.2.3.1) and traditional media (3.2.3.2) to focus entirely on the internet, smartphones, AI, and how these tools are fundamentally changing our society, identities, and power structures.

This topic is crucial for understanding globalisation and social change, so let's dive into how the digital world impacts people and technology!

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Section 1: The Internet and New Media (3.2.3.3)

The Internet: Fast, Global Access to Information

The core sociological importance of the internet is its ability to provide fast global access to information. Sociologist Marshall McLuhan famously theorised about the "global village," and the internet is perhaps the ultimate realisation of this idea – a world where distance is irrelevant for communication.

• Impact on Communication: Instant messaging, video calls, and social platforms have dramatically changed how we maintain relationships and receive news, often blurring the lines between private and public life.

Social Media: Changes and Challenges

Social and new media (like TikTok, X, Instagram, Facebook) are powerful sociological forces, but they bring significant risks alongside their benefits.

A) Social Media and Mental Health

While social media connects people across diasporas and allows us to express identity, studies show complex effects on social media and mental health.
Example: Constant comparison with curated, 'perfect' online lives can lead to increased anxiety, depression, and feelings of inadequacy, particularly among young people.

B) Power, Control, and the Truth

Just like traditional media, the digital sphere is structured by ownership and control. A few massive technology companies (often called 'Big Tech') control most of the platforms we use, which raises questions about who decides what information is prioritised or removed.

Misinformation and Disinformation:

In the digital age, the spread of untrue content is a massive issue. It's important to know the difference:

• Misinformation: False or inaccurate information that is spread, often unintentionally, simply because someone believes it is true.
• Disinformation: False information deliberately created and spread to deceive or manipulate people.

This rapid spread of false content fuels conspiracy theories, where people believe that secret, powerful groups are responsible for events, which can erode trust in official institutions (governments, media, science).

C) The Audience Revolution

One of the biggest sociological shifts is the relationship between social media and audiences. We are no longer just passive consumers of media; we are active participants.

• Content Creators: Ordinary people creating videos, blogs, and posts that shape culture and dialogue.
• Citizen Journalists: People who film events (like protests or disasters) and share them instantly, bypassing traditional news gatekeepers. This can be powerful but also unregulated.
• Social Media Influencers: Individuals who build large, devoted followings and wield economic and social power by promoting lifestyles or products.

Section 2: Digital Technologies in Everyday Life (3.2.3.4)

Digital Entertainment and Adaptation

Digital technologies encompass far more than just social platforms:

• Digital/Online Games: These are now major social spaces, functioning as communities and sometimes replacing traditional leisure activities. They generate immense profit and have their own social norms and hierarchies.
• 'Traditional' Media Adaptation: Newspapers, radio, and television have had to adapt to the digital age by offering streaming services, podcasts, and online paywalls to survive. The boundary between 'old' and 'new' media is constantly shrinking.

The Quantified Self: Health and Fitness

Digital tools are increasingly used for health and fitness. This involves two main concepts:

1. Quantification: Using wearable technology (smartwatches, fitness trackers) to measure and record every aspect of one's physical activity, sleep, and heart rate.
2. Gamification of Social Life: Applying game mechanics (like points, leaderboards, and badges) to real-life activities to motivate behaviour (e.g., getting a 'medal' for walking 10,000 steps).

Did You Know? Sociologists worry that this constant self-monitoring can lead to new forms of pressure and anxiety about achieving 'optimal' performance, essentially turning our bodies into projects to be constantly managed.

Surveillance and Security

Technology is central to modern monitoring and control:

• Use of technologies for surveillance: This includes CCTV, automatic number plate recognition, and the data collected by your smartphone about your location and browsing habits. This is often framed as necessary for security but raises major questions about privacy.
• Illegal and Anti-Social Uses: Technology is used for crime, including cybercrimes (like phishing, identity theft, denial-of-service attacks) and hacking. This necessitates constant investment in cyber security.

The Digital Divide

Don't worry if this seems straightforward, but this is a critical topic! The digital divide refers to the inequalities in access to digital technologies based on social class, geography (urban vs. rural), age, and global location.

• Global Divide: A person in a wealthy, developed nation has vastly superior access to high-speed internet, smartphones, and computers compared to someone in a poor, developing nation.
• Local Divide: Even within one society, older people, lower-income families, or those in remote areas may struggle to afford devices or the skills (digital literacy) to use them effectively.

Why does the Digital Divide matter? Because digital access is increasingly necessary for education, employment, banking, and accessing government services. Lacking access exacerbates existing social inequalities.

Section 3: Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Cyborgs (3.2.3.5)

Understanding Artificial Intelligence (AI)

AI refers to computer systems able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as decision-making, speech recognition, and visual perception. The syllabus requires us to understand the differences between types of AI:

• Narrow or Weak AI: Designed and trained to perform a single, specific task (e.g., Siri, Alexa, spam filters, chess programs). This is what we primarily use today.
• General or Strong AI: Hypothetical AI with the ability to understand, learn, and apply its intelligence to solve any problem, just like a human (this does not exist yet).

Algorithms: Power and Inequality

AI is built on algorithms—sets of instructions or rulesets that computers follow to process data and make decisions. Sociologists are deeply concerned with algorithms: issues of power and inequality.

How Algorithms Create Inequality:

If an algorithm is trained using biased or discriminatory historical data (e.g., past job applicants were mostly male), the algorithm will learn this pattern and continue to discriminate against female applicants, even though the bias wasn't intentionally programmed in.

The extent to which people and organisations are using AI and effects of this is growing rapidly in areas like:

• Hiring and recruitment (deciding who gets interviewed).
• Policing and criminal justice (predicting where crime will occur).
• Healthcare (diagnosing diseases).

Robots and Cyborgs: The Merged Future

This final point looks at emerging technologies that merge the human and machine/technology.

• Robots: Automated machines programmed to carry out tasks, often in manufacturing or services. They challenge the structure of work and employment.
• Cyborgs: A contraction of "cybernetic organism"—a being with both organic and biomechatronic parts. In Sociology, this concept goes beyond just science fiction.

The sociologist Donna Haraway argued that we are all, to some extent, cyborgs because we are constantly integrated with technology (pacemakers, hearing aids, even a person who feels lost without their smartphone).

The rise of cyborg technology shows how technology is not just external; it is literally being incorporated into the human body and redefining what it means to be human.