These two questions have no necessary relation to each other. And the debate has been constantly confused by not keeping these two questions apart.
New technologies ALWAYS make big changes in how people go about doing things. Technologies that are within the control of single individuals or small groups (e.g., missile launchers that a single person can handle and that can shoot down a plane) tend to be useful for resistance groups. Technologies that can only be handled by huge established institutions tend to strengthen establishments. What's to debate about this? The musket was only effective when wielded by disciplined groups of well-trained soldiers. The rifle was effective for somewhat more loosely organized groups or even individuals. The tank eliminated trench-warfare. And so on.
The question of a technology changing human consciousness is a rather radically different one. I have argued that certainly the codex and possibly the typewriter brought about such huge changes in human consciousness by transforming the implict understanding of what information was. Printing did NOT change human consciousness, though as a new technology it came to have (after a century or so) important political uses. That change was analogous to the change between the use of the hectograph (Russian Revolution) and the cassette tape (Iranian Revolution). The hectograph and the cassette were _merely_ technologies of communication that improved on earlier technologies of communication. Their importance was the content they carried. Of course one uses a new an superior technology for a given purpose. Nothing to debate or get excited about.
The photocopier is much easier to use than the mimeograph. Facebook reaches more people than the phone tree.
Shag wrote:
****It puts pressure on you to participate - something like EffBee does anyway. If you go to a demo or meeting or action, and then everyone posts updates and photos and videos, there's pressure on people to show up. There was an interesting piece out recently, can't recall what it was now, but the authors of a study said that EffBee is depressing for some people. They see everyone else posting about going to this party or that vacation, and their lives seem less exciting than others' lives. Well, if you can't afford a vacation or weren't invited to the party, that's one thing. But going to a demo or meeting doesn't generally require a lot of money and you don't have to be popular to belong/show up/help out.*****
What needs to be discussed here has nothing to do with technology but with whether or not shame is an effective means of achiving solidarity in an unequal struggle.
Carrol