Concept of Technology with Features
1. A technology is design to instrumental action that reduces the uncertainty in the cause effect relationships involved in achieving desired outcomes. There are two distinct components of a technology. These are:
(a) Hardware technology – consisting of the tool that embodies the technology as material or physical object, and
(b) Software technology – consisting of knowledge base for the toot (Rogers and Hart, 1998). A technology & refers to the combination of knowledge, inputs and management practices that are used together with productive resources to gain a desired output.
2. A technology is a device, which is generated through the combination of knowledge, inputs, and management, practices which are used together with productive resources to gain a desired output.
3. The way knowledge, inputs and services are composed and combined and thus facilitate a certain system to function and survive can be termed as a technology.
Features of a Technology
There are several features or characteristics of a technology. The major ones are listed below:
i. Newness
ii. Technical appropriateness
iii. Experimentally proved
iv. Adaptability
v. Economic profitability
vi. Environmentally-friendliness
vii. Sustainability
viii. Relative advantage
ix. Compatibility
x. Observability
Individuals generally tend to expose themselves to technologies that are in accordance with their interests, needs, or existing attitudes. One consciously or unconsciously avoids technologies that are in conflict with his/ her predisposition. This tendency is referred to as selective exposure. It may be argued individuals will seldom expose themselves to messages about a technology unless they first feel a need for the technology, and that even if-such individuals are exposed to the technological messages, such exposure will have little effect unless the individuals perceive the technology as relevant to his needs and as consistent with his existing attitudes and beliefs. This tendency is referred to as selective perception. On the other hand individuals, knowing fully or unknowingly, remember the messages which they think would useful to solve his immediate problem, while they either ignore or forget the others. This is known as selective retention. Hence, selective exposure, selective perception and selective retention are the important aspects for an individual to consider a technology for its adoption.
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