How a label can influence a perception

Information Ecologies: Matter of Metaphor – Nardi & O’Day, p.27 

[Metaphors matter.  People who see technology as a tool see themselves controlling it.  People who see technology as a system see themselves caught up inside it.  We see technology as part of ecology, surrounded by a dense network of relationships in local environments.  Each of these metaphors is “right,” in some sense; each captures some important characteristics of technology in society.  Each suggests different possibilities for action and change.]

The way we speak affects the way we think.  The words we use and their connotations set up images and thoughts in our heads which correspond to the way we perceive meaning.  There is not a word for every action and emotion that a person can experience in the English language, so what about those unnamed experiences? When we are unable to set a label on something it can shape how we can think about it.  How are we to understand something we can not even identify? 

Even within the English language there are factors which can cause different interpretations of similar words or phrases.  In the U.S. a majority of the people may speak the same language, however, the section of the country you live in will affect the words you use and the way you use them. Also when multiple people place different labels on a single thing it can cause confusion, disrupting the actual effect that may have been intended by its initial conception or use. 

The way people look at technology or are taught about technology will affect the way they understand it.  As Nardi and O’Day clearly express, the way it can be described can set up multiple interpretations of how it should be viewed.  Referring to technology as a tool seems like something you can come to manipulate and master.  When technology is described as a system a person may get the impression that they are going to be operating according to the way technology will permit them.  Nardi and O’Day attempt to use the word ecology when referring to technology in order to change the perceptions which can be derived by the previous statements.  Using the word ecology allows people to view technology as something that is constantly evolving yet can not evolve beyond a person’s ability to understand it because within an ecology there are several entities which serve as factors in the others’ existence.  I would prefer to look at technology as an information ecology according to Nardi and O’Day.  I do not see technology as something evolving beyond humans and of its own accord.  Technology is thriving in participation with our own existence and our own limitations.   

I would be curious to find out from my classmates how they prefer to think of technology. Do you generally define technology within the three conceptions offered? Do you think the views offered perhaps hinder or help our ability to define it more correctly or simply better?