Instrumentalist ----Postive & Negative

Seeing my shy 13-year-old cousin used the MSN system to chat with his friend all day today with out leaveing the computer room, I start to carefully consider about the concept of the "black box" of the technology and the perspective of the instrumentalist (Smith, January, 18, 2005).

According to the lecture (Smith, January, 18, 2005), the positive of the instrumalist is that technologies are seen as social creators and people use them as tools to slove problems and satisfy thier needs. Before using the MSN, my cousin liked to use the telephone. Every time he used, he would spend at least 2 hours chatting with his friends since he does not like face-to-face communication. However, the annoying thing that caused him not able to chat with his friends frequently was that spending long time using the telephone would result a expensive payment. Fortualtely, by the invention of the MSN, he found that the online chatting system faciliates him to maintain communication and social interactions with his friends. Also, since the MSN is free, he even can invite several people to join the discussion group; whereas the telephone can not do that. Therefore, MSN satisfies my cousin's needs and sloves his problem of pay lots of expensive phone bills; and it is obvious viewed as positive.

However, when I saw my couisn sitting on the chair and using the MSN to chat with his friend for a long time, I started to worry about the negative impact of the MSN. Also according to the lecture (Smith, January, 18, 2005), the negative perspective of the instrumentalist is that technologies are sometimes viewed as negative social outcomes. When my couisn spent long time on the MSN, he participated less outdoor activities and social interaction with others in real life; as a result, he becomes even shyer and have difficulity using face-to-face communication. He also can not magange his time well in doing school works because the simulate life on the MSN seems more vivid. Therefore, the MSN should be regulated. The current MSN system does not set any limitation for peopele who want to use the system so everyone can use it. In my opinion, perhaps setting a regulation that only allows people to use the system when they reach the age of 19 or older can reduce the negative impact on young people since they have less abilities to control themselves for time management; also young age people should participate more outdoor activities in order to learn social interactions with others.

Reference,

Smith, R. (January, 18, 2005). Week 2: The Introduction of Information Technology-The New Media. Presented at a CMNS 253 Lecture at simon Fraser University