ALVIN R.

VIAJE

ABM 402

Cultural determinism is the belief that human behavior is influenced by cultural factors that the
culture in which we are raised determines who we are at emotional and behavioral levels. It contrasts with
genetic determinism, the theory that biologically inherited traits and the environmental influences that
affect those traits dominate who we are, while the technology determinism in media is the philosophical
and sociological notion that the power and technology of the media has an effect on shaping society.

The difference between cultural determinism and technological determinism is how they shape
our society and us. The cultural determinism shapes us by the live-in culture, supports the idea that our
emotional and behavioral patterns are formed and molded by the culture we are raised in. For example,
the Filipinos are very respectful. The moment they are born into this world, they are already taught how
to be respectful by using po and opo, words that end sentences when addressing elders. They have a
culture of pagmamano, which is where they raise the backs of the hands of their elders to their foreheads
as a sign of respect while the technological determinism shapes our society and us by using the power of
technologies. For example, in media theory, Marshall McLuhan's theory "the medium is the message". He
has credited the printing press with the creation of the nation state. The printing press like the internet and
all the developments between the two, change the form in which information could be presented, which
from technological determinism view means it results in changing the nature of information that was
presents you the way the information was received.