The Technology and the Society

The Technology and The Society was a very interesting article, but one that also had me confused at various times while I was reading it.  Raymond Williams made some interesting analogies throughout the article and I really liked how he broke it up into three main sections.  Section A was titled "Versions of Cause and Effect in Technology and Society."  My favorite part about this section was when he talked about the differences between technological determinism and symptomatic technology.  As readers, we find out that technological determinism is "assumed as self-generating" and that symptomatic is also "self-generating, but in a more marginal way."  This was interesting to me to see his definition of these two different positions.  Section B was referred to as "The Social History of Television as a Technology."  In this section, it was interesting to see the history of telegraphy, photography and the television itself.  It blew my mind that these inventions were being talked about in the 1800s-1900s.  Getting this historical perspective was another important part of this article.  Section C was titled "The Social History of the Uses of Television Technology."  This section was filled with a ton of information.  I really enjoyed the part on broadcasting and how important the press was for Britain in times of crisis like the Civil War and Commonwealth.  It made me think about how important the press was during these times and how many people's lives depended on the messages being sent and received.