Lila Rouk

Social Construction of Technology

Since August 6, 1991, the internet has been the most commonly used technology on the

entire planet, making it an invaluable resource to America since its conception. In the short time

since its development, the World Wide Web has also quickly become the only technology to

service modern society’s every whim; something that could not have been possible without the

necessitation of such a technology in day to day operations, which are now indistinguishable

from our cultural practices and values as a whole. Values we hold dearly, such as individualism,

freedom of speech, capitalism, and the right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. As

Americans, we do not consider capitalism a value, so much as a human right. No, what we value

is a free market: the right to choose.

America was founded on a free market, stirred by a melting pot of ambitious people

seeking freedom of expression and the right to pursue the American Dream, a goal rendered just

that, a dream, if we were to live in a society free of capitalism. Capitalism and individualism are

mutually inclusive values, dating all the way back to the migration of Puritans who settled here

to practice religion freely. There cannot be one without the other, as we use our capitalist

resources to distinguish our individuality through freedom of expression. As such, our

individualism as Americans and our authentic artistic experiences are no stranger to the

exploitations of capitalism.

On the same note, American capitalism has always exploited individualism, and this has

been bolstered by the rise of social media platforms and the internet over the past 20 years. As a

result, we can no longer implement and apply the very values which define us as Americans

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without deliberate and conscious use of the internet as a highly functional, albeit very

independent technology. Having said this, our economy is heavily reliant on the internet, wholly

dependent on its smooth operation, to the point where even a 48-hour blackout would result in a

ripple effect with damning consequences for the entire country.

First and foremost, it is worth mentioning that our American values were constructed

long before the development and rise of any piece of technology we use today. Our ideals were

often expressed and glamorized through popular American literature of the ages. To date, I have

not read a single novel in which the protagonist of the story does not have a single defining trait

or characteristic which distinguishes himself from the rest of the characters in the story. A prime

example would be Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of a story which was written in 1951. The

entire plot line of Catcher and the Rye is Holden’s condemnation of society’s rapidly growing

superficiality. The book’s themes of individualism are grounded in his societal status as an

outcast. Another example is The Great Gatsby, which incorporates themes of both individualism

and capitalism by narrating a rags-to-riches tale about a man who made his fortune by

bootlegging alcohol during the Prohibition era. That which makes him individual from his peers

is the way in which he has amassed his fortune, which begs the question: what came first, the

chicken or the egg?

Historically speaking, the need for individualism predates the functioning operational capitalist

society to which we have fallen mercy in this day and age. In the early 1600’s, the Puritans left

England and settled colonies in Massachusetts to practice a reformed theology called Calvinism,

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preaching views which were directly in opposition to those believed in by the Church of

England. Sometime after 1640, separatist Puritans fled to avoid persecution. These events

resulted in a snowball chain of occurrences which oversaw the rapid increase of asylum for other

groups of people seeking religious freedoms, specifically Quakers and Jews. Thus, the colonies

were founded on the basis of religious freedom, and by extension, freedom of expression.

Even prior to the development of technology, practicing cultural individualism often went

sour when coupled with capitalism. In fact, I want to go as far as to say that cultural

appropriation would not exist without a capitalist system there to seize aspects of a popular

culture to flip a profit on the basis of cool points. The seemingly overnight popularity of rap

music on the radio which was followed by a rise in sagging pants among cultures which were not

African-American, mark a notable pre-Internet wave of individualism feat. American capitalism

and a bit of cultural appropriation for some razzle dazzle.

Individualism has been co-opted by American capitalism for years. America’s most

engrained value, its golden rule, its foundation, lies in its predication that we as citizens carry the

right to pursue life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. However, our pursuits are individual in

nature, owing to the fact that we as people are separate entities. Entities with our own distinct

interests, habits, upbringings, and knowledge. Our individualism as citizens is promoted through

our right to choose, create and pursue. Specifically, choosing our leaders and pursuing our own

business prospects, whether that be through creation of physical art and brokered by self-

expression, or starting a company. This is the way in which the two values intersect: Capitalism

in the absence of individualism is non-functional because it is founded on individual pursuit in

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its entirety. However, the rise of the internet not only uncomfortably illuminated this issue, it

explicitly and insatiably capitalized off of the culture by providing a front door and calling it

Google, Instagram, and Twitter. Social media now allows access to millions of individuals, as

opposed to the large groups of people one may have been used to observing in the 1990’s.

In recent times, capitalism has more intensely impressed its agenda onto impressionable

young women who regularly use the social media platform Instagram. In the beginning, women

used the platform as a forefront to share their art, celebrate and embrace their bodies, and to

normalize “normal” instead of normalizing unrealistic beauty standards. However, the beginning

of the influencer era marked the end of the self-love one. Influencers aided celebrities and

companies in making the culture predatory by making one type of woman. Specifically, the

cosmopolitan woman of the modern day, and then proceeding to capitalize off of her while also

allowing her to make money solely off of her looks. The need for money resulted in an

oversaturation of the one beauty standard.

Likewise, the social media platform called Youtube has had a significant role in the rise of

individualism as a core American value since 2010. Youtube’s reputation precedes it. The

platform is notorious for shooting previously unknown people to internet fame overnight. As a

result of this affect, many people have been able to further their newfound reputations by

coasting on the explosive virality of the original video, a virality resulting in thousands of new

subscribers in a very short amount of time, thereby giving content creators the ability to monetize

their channels and make a passive income off of the adsense viewers must sit through mid-watch.

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An unprecedented problem that has arisen with Youtube in recent times is in regards to

the social and political views held by famous content creators, despite the right to free speech,

through its exploitation of individualism and threats of speech regulation enforced by means of

demonetization. Demonetization refers to the removal of advertisements from a video, stripping

the creator of revenue. The platform has accidentally illuminated the concern of censorship

across all platforms on the internet. The media censorship by platforms such as Youtube and

Facebook have resulted in a snowball effect across the board. Just yesterday, Facebook sparked

backlash when it was revealed that they were deliberately flagging and hiding posts concerning

the recent pandemic.

In doing so, fact based sources have been unable to access these posts, affecting

prominent news outlets such as the Dallas Morning News, reports Forbes magazine. Due to the

fact that the internet is so widely used, so immersive in every part of the world, it is not

surprising that the intense censorship plaguing content creators and public figures has

inadvertently affected politics. A widely known example of this is Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of

Facebook, who’s desire is to align the content we view with the public’s general view of politics.

This has been done by limiting political choices, through the suppression of conservative content

by outspoken right-leaning posters with large internet followings.

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Pages 1-4

Value: Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

How does the internet conform to this value?

"The pursuit of happiness by the practice of reason and truth". The internet’s role in uncovering

important truths. Talk about how the internet has uncovered violations in our liberties through

the virality of police brutality

Talk about how the pursuit of liberty and happiness through virality and the internet was

revolutionary, sparking revolutions such as the Syrian revolution, and massive social rights

movements, such as black lives matter.

Pages 5-8

Flow into the value of freedom of speech.

How does the internet embody freedom of speech?

What was the result of unregulated free speech?

Illumination of multiple social issues, the internet’s role in illumination, and the lasting

effects.

Again, “pursuit of happiness by the practice of freedom and truth”

Social media’s attempts at censorship of news and the internet’s role in regulating

freedom of speech.

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Pages 9-10

Connect freedom of speech and individualism. Use the paragraphs about individualism

and capitalism that you already wrote, but first talk about individualism separately, talk

about its history, any trends or cultural staples formed as a result, then the effect had on it

by capitalism.

11-12

Talk about how the internet revolutionized the free market by allowing consumers to buy

without leaving their homes. Talk about the right to choose, and the millions of options

we now have at our fingertips. Talk about the stock market and how it can now be

monitored constantly through use of the internet. Talk about new ways the internet has

allowed us to profit, like creating content, and the lasting effect paid online “public

figures” have had on us as a culture, talk about productivity culture. Pg 201-202