3. Digital technology as a tool or a medium?

In a society, where having a computer and an e-mail account is almost mandatory, questions start to rise by sociologist if they are to users as a tool or a medium? Should we take the web environment something that helps us to create our tended objects or it is already a medium itself where the outcome is visible? 

Geroge Rückriem takes a closer look to this question and tries to analyze it through media and activity theory. First he is looking for and answer if those two theories are compatible as in activity theory "Tool" is one of the key concepts and "medium" is in the center of media theory. He comes to conclusion that if they are, we can benefit from it to understand better our virtual activity systems. 

In the end he comes to a conclusion that it is a tool and a medium. "The final answer to our question – is computer technology tool or medium? – runs: it is tool  and  medium. It  is simply a question  of approaching a thing reflecting it as tool or as medium. But we  have to be aware of the fact, that this change of view is a methodological potentiality of activity  theory only when reading it from the point of 

view of system theory"

I have to agree with him. No matter from what point of view to look at it, the information technology can be used as a tool and as a medium. We need software, computer, keyboard, etc. to create a content that later on will be published in various platforms in internet and therefor could not stand alone. 

For example if we would take an web environment such as Wikipedia that is a free online database system created by users for users. Anybody can write articles there about any event, definition, person and so on. Also the content is regulated and controlled by other users that the information spread in there is not false. From the aspect of activity theory, the creator (subject) is using computer (tool) and Wikipedia platform (tool) to create an article (object) based on previous references (subject) to publish it for others to read. The final outcome is for others to evaluate and control. As the article will be publish then Wikipedia has also a function as a medium. 

Although the article gives quite satisfying answers then in my opinion it starts to be a bit outdated already. It was published in 2003 and quite a lot has changed in relation to internet environments, its definitions and functions. Nowadays we can apply the same rules and etiquette for internet actions as we do it in face-to-face communication. Everything we say and do is taken with the same seriousness as we would do it in person. Also many normal activities have moved to internet. For example the key element for promotion and marketing is the use of internet by different tools and mediums that has given to us. Nobody can not have a proper promo campaign without announcing it in Facebook. Most of the marketing books published now are more focusing on the efficient use of social networks and how one can take advantage of it. 

In my opinion on what we should focus now, is the impact of this kind of usage of something so unreal as the internet is. It has reached more or less its peek. Children growing up now have a lot bigger ability to focus on different things and gaining informations. For example if we compare actions films between 2011 and 1989, then the editing is almost twice as fast as it used to be. Now we have only one question - how far we can develop with the technology?