Social hardware
Encyclopedia
Social Hardware is a branch of Social Technology
and related in a natural way to the branch called Social Software
. It may be said to have begun with the most primitive writing implements, but the most conspicuous examples are the telegraph and telephone, especially these systems before they used computers at all. The term has entered popular use to describe electronic communications devices beginning with the cellphone
, which is usually much more than a telephone.
The term Social Hardware appears, perhaps for the first time, in a 1979 book by Johnston and Gummet. Since then the term has entered popular culture, most often associated with personal communications devices, beginning with the cellphone.
Very often social hardware is associated with social software. A writing tablet and stylus are hardware, alphabets are software. As noted in Social software (social procedure), the use of currency such as a dollar bill as money is software, but one most not neglect the considerable difficulties of producing reliable coins and bills which will resist the attempts of counterfeiters. A mint produces the coinage and currency, which are items of hardware, while it is their use in society which makes the monetary system software.
Modern pieces of Social Hardware include the landline telephone network and the mobile telephone network (cellphones together with the cellphone towers which support them). These may also be described as Information Technology
, a more common term, but Information Technology includes hardware for the transmission of all types of information, not just interpersonal communication
. It is the use of telephones as interpersonal communication devices which make them social hardware.
Social technology
The term Social Technology was first used at the University of Chicago by Albion Woodbury Small and Charles Richmond Henderson around the end of the 19th century. Small and Henderson were close colleagues, and it is hard to tell who used the term first...
and related in a natural way to the branch called Social Software
Social Software
In philosophy and the social sciences, social software is an interdisciplinary research program that borrowsmathematical tools and techniques from game theory and computer science in order to analyze and design social procedures...
. It may be said to have begun with the most primitive writing implements, but the most conspicuous examples are the telegraph and telephone, especially these systems before they used computers at all. The term has entered popular use to describe electronic communications devices beginning with the cellphone
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
, which is usually much more than a telephone.
The term Social Hardware appears, perhaps for the first time, in a 1979 book by Johnston and Gummet. Since then the term has entered popular culture, most often associated with personal communications devices, beginning with the cellphone.
Very often social hardware is associated with social software. A writing tablet and stylus are hardware, alphabets are software. As noted in Social software (social procedure), the use of currency such as a dollar bill as money is software, but one most not neglect the considerable difficulties of producing reliable coins and bills which will resist the attempts of counterfeiters. A mint produces the coinage and currency, which are items of hardware, while it is their use in society which makes the monetary system software.
Modern pieces of Social Hardware include the landline telephone network and the mobile telephone network (cellphones together with the cellphone towers which support them). These may also be described as Information Technology
Information technology
Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
, a more common term, but Information Technology includes hardware for the transmission of all types of information, not just interpersonal communication
Interpersonal communication
Interpersonal communication is usually defined by communication scholars in numerous ways, usually describing participants who are dependent upon one another. It...
. It is the use of telephones as interpersonal communication devices which make them social hardware.