Communication technology plays an increasingly prominent role in our daily lives. According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, technology has become a central feature of American families' everyday lives, with 84% of households having at least one mobile phone and 77% of households having a computer. Traditionally, the television has been the most prominent communication technology in the home, with over 98% of American households owning a TV, but increasingly the Internet has been gaining prominence. With such technological pervasiveness in society, questions arise about the effects such communication technologies have in our lives.

A technological deterministic viewpoint would suggest that such technologies have tremendous and direct effects on the society that adopts them. Technological determinism is a perspective that argues the primary agent ...