Social Shaping of Technology - Essay Example

Social Shaping of Technology affiliation: Introduction Technology continues to play an important role in globalization, and it affects the human daily life including feeding, dressing, entertainment, and housing among others. However, it is important to realise that technology has its downside including pollution and deaths. Technology affects every person despite his or her class. McKenzie and Wajcman (1999 p. 15), this technological determinism differs with some technologies affecting social, political, cultural, and technological relations more than others do. This paper discusses Schwartz Cowan’s account of how household labour industrialised through the advent of new domestic technologies in the late 19th and early the 20th centuries. Analysis Interacting society and technology may involve thinking extensively about the computers that continue invading all workplaces or the modern interstate trains among others. These types of thought have blinded people to a different perspective of the technology revolution especially at homes. Cowan (1983 p. 16) argues that technological evolution affects people’s daily lives in different ways and that the home evolution differs from other technologies like industrialization. She says that no person expected this type of revolution arguing that families were one basic unit before industrialization. According to Cowan, these rural families processed anything they needed despite their large sizes, which they comfortably satisfied. Every person had a household duty, and when the men took care of the financial needs, the women took care of the domestic needs of the homestead. However, today things seem quite different and it is hard to tell who takes care of what in the house. Roles seem to change with industrialization with less socialization and more stress management. Cowan (1983 p. 19) further argues that today’s women may be in a lot of trouble with modern families due to due to industrial technology. The ripple effect is more divorces, depressions, and liberation demands. Research by Mackenzie and Wacjaman (1998) argues forcefully against the idea of technological determinism for the proposition that socialism shapes technologies. These researchers argue that technology is more about bureaucracy, social preferences, and economic pressures, and not just science invention. In her example, Cowan (1983 p. 16) argued that technical necessity did not introduce the refrigerator. However, because 1920 General Electric escalated the need for the United States to sell to their consumers 24hr household electric refrigerators to its consumers (MacKenzie & Wajcman 1985 p. 44). Consequently, social shaping approach became more popular within the European Union, and the scholars became more interested. However, other non-technical factors contributed to the domestic technological needs. A study by Crafts et al. (2007 p. 62) shows that there were many changes brought about by the World War I especially in the domestic settings. A good example is the gas lighting used in many homesteads before the war. It is clear that by 1918 after the War most homes were electrified meaning changing from oil and gas lamps to electric lighting system. This change brought about other changes in electric appliances that drastically changed the homemakers’ daily routine. Ironing was among the most dreaded duties in the house due to the heavy iron weights and the pre-heating process that was so cumbersome. The introduction of the electric iron simplified the work. According to Cowan (1983 p. 21), they were cheap and user friendly, and by 1929 many homes especially in the urban areas owned iron boxes. In addition, the introduction of the washing machines became equally prevalent among the middle and the upper class. Edge (1988 p. 56) says that during the War, majority of the men joined the war fields leaving their families behind. This situation meant that the women joined the industries to work, and having less time for domestic duties. Research shows that some of these men never sent funds back home, and instead they entertained themselves through alcohol and prostitution. This means that the women had to do both the industrial and the domestic job. This pressure saw then embrace technologies like washing machines to enable them to balance between the industry and the domestic work (Delap 2011 p. 44). This process of laundry required being on the standby to add soap and stop the machine when necessary, however, it saved any upcoming issues regarding whose time it was to do the laundry. In addition, it consumed less human energy. By 1920, most homes had new modern bathrooms with heating systems, and industrialization introduced iron bathrooms doing away with the porcelain bathtubs. A study by Cowan (1983 p. 20) shows that the enamel sanitary fixtures’ prices raised to $4.8 million in 1923 from $2.4 million realised before the war. These bathrooms had hot water systems, and with time, the heated water systems extended to the kitchens and the laundry rooms. Consequently, the rooms warmed too especially in the cold seasons through a central heating system. Cowan (1983 p. 34) noted that by 1923, two out of three homes had a heating system. Majority of the people did away with the oil and gas stoves, and articles giving advice on how to handle stoves disappeared. By the time the great depression began after the war, most homes had adapted the new cooking methods. The new electric or modern cooking came with new diets. The women magazines introduced new recipes for canned foods that were not popular before the war. After the war, women could purchase all sorts of fresh fruits and foods and therefore made canned foods outdated. According to Goodchild (2008 p. 29), technology saw the change in food transport with electric or refrigerated railways assured women of fresh foods anywhere in the country at reasonable prices. However, convenience eating saw people eating less especially due to war shortages. In addition, fewer people ate from home because they worked in the industries, and mostly ate light meals at the restaurants. Therefore, most changes included a switch from hand power to electric power, and changing from the use of wood and coal to oil and gas use. Other changes included fetching water from the well to have running water pipes right in the house. Industrial revolution may have applied in an industry’s fundamental technology, and diffusing it to the employees. Changing of laundry and bathroom appliances from porcelain to iron is not different from the change in hand cleaning to electric cleaning, and they are all changes in traditional habits. This approach explains why such changes consider as an industrial revolution in housework (Howcroft & Trauth 2005 p. 84). The only difference is the notion that the society does not consider homemakers in a labour force or as economic commodities. However, it is appropriate to regard this change as a technological revolution although the technology in this case bases on homely things. These changes made structural changes like increased jobs that required new skills. In addition, these jobs may not seem burdensome, but the housewives require more skills. On the other hand, ideologies changed and a good example was the women, who lessened in courts for divorce, and other political unrest. In its place, the women sterilized feeding bottles, took their children for dancing lessons, shopped for new clothes, planned nutritious meals, stitched, and learnt child psychology among others. These changes equally affected behavioural patterns. According to Coward, a sudden disappearance of domestic of workers occurred with industrialisation. Before the First World War, when majority of the women took the house chores, and statistics show that by 1920, the statistics dropped to 1.4 million in 1920 from 1.85 million in 1910. Different articles wrote on new kitchen designs, and disappearance of paid family workers among others as prove of house labour change. Consequently, it became hard to get skilled workers, and their salaries suddenly went up. The daughters and their single aunties got employment, and houses did not have servant rooms. Unfortunately, household tasks increased despite the reduced number of house helps. The wives took tasks like childcare, and despite the fact, they had fewer children the society expected to do all the work for the children. Some of their duties included sterilising the bottles, preparing formula foods, weighing and checking their health, and chauffeuring them to school and dance classes (Harper 2003 p. 37). In order to connect the social and the technological changes, it is important to have a link, which in this case includes the manufacturers of these new products, the advertising company, and the periodical publisher. The manufacturers included huge companies like General Electric, Frigidaire, Proctor and Allan, Del Monte, and Lever Brothers among others. The National campaigns played a vital role in stimulating social changes, and a good example was the appliance adverts that assured the user that each gadget replaced one house help (Laubere 1985 p. 12). Other large corporations preached on good consumer practices like Ovaltine, and Ralston although they were not responsible for the compulsive practice by these women to weigh their children almost after every meal. Therefore, advertisements made a lot of money, and less house servants meant increased appliances requirements in order to save time. In addition, the increase in household tasks required more specialised products, and failure house chores meant buying more products. Women of the 20th century brought about changes in the family lives after the domestic technological change. A study by Nebeker (2009 p. 19) noted that household work is a great example of the general problem of technology and social change. Modern technology however does not seem to favour the modern middle-class woman. In such sociological models, the wife seems overworked and the house chores solution does not seem to ensue. People’s idea on what to expect with technological changes may require revision. Technology comes with efficiency and other changes in the workforce. Some of the changes include more skills and experiences, less work-related emotions, and increased managerial functions. However, in the case of household works, the expectations reverse because the workforce tends to become less with the disappearance of the women to industries, and the other chores being left to the housewife. Deliveries and laundries are among the duties done by commercial agencies, and later left to the homemakers (MacKenzie & Wajcman 1985 p. 44). The individual worker in this scenario is less specialised, and unlike earlier days when she had helpers, she now became the jack-of-all-trades in the home setting. Today she is the manager and the worker in her home despite earlier days when she had servants under her command. The White woman suffered the most because she was the boss all along in the earlier days. She gave orders to her servants, and they served her on the dining table. However, with technology, everything changed. Solingen (1994 p. 53) argues that the housewife became the person responsible for all the house chores. She vacuum cleaned the house, and shopped for the vegetables. She equally attended lessons on child health whereby she did child psychology. The former house boss became the person responsible for the diaper change and continued to weigh the weight of her children. In a case of weight decreased, the embarrassment forced her to consider the right formula for these children. This progress weighed too much on these mothers. Politics equally played a big part in technology because, during these political Wars, all men joined the armies and left the women toiling. Tellys and Wills (2007 p. 9) shows that the men took too long before getting back home. In addition, the industries had to continue their operations, and the women replaced the men who went to war. Unfortunately, the women did not get lesser working hours considering that they had other duties to take care of. The men became irresponsible, and there was an increase in divorce rates. Single women worked hard to sustain their families, and they increased the demands for these home appliances. The working woman had no energy by the time she got home, and, therefore, she required some electronics to simplify her work. A good example mentioned earlier was the iron box and the laundry machine. The busy women had no time to entertain the man of the house and the children, and therefore televisions and radios became part of the home entertainment appliances. This use of home entertainment confirms that the social demand contributed in enhanced technology due to social demands. Food canning was popular in the earlier days although with improved refrigerated means of transport, the women could now access fresh food and fruits from anywhere. Conclusion Technology continues to enhance therefore bringing major changes to the society as a whole. In the case of household labor force, the technology revolution saw changes from the use of wood and coal to gas and oil, and later electricity. However, these changes were not all gold for everyone. The modern woman suffered under technology changes, which seemed to increase the household chores. After all, the servants were no longer available either because of acquiring newer and more paying jobs or maybe due to their increased salaries. This forced the woman to do the laundry, while taking care of the children. In addition, most of the women learnt to survive alone attending both office and industry chores, as well as house chores. Lastly, the industrial revolution seems to have heightened household work emotions instead of desensitizing them. References CRAFTS, N. F. R., GAZELEY, I., & NEWELL, A. (2007). Work and pay in twentieth-century Britain. Oxford, Oxford University Press. 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