ABSTRACT

This chapter provides an understanding of the role of human agency in the development and use of new technologies. It deals with a discussion of how some people use opting out as a status symbol and a way of solidifying their personal identities as independent thinkers. The chapter focuses on ways interviewees construct their cultural identities as they assert their dominance over technology and offers some concluding remarks about the growing opting out trend. In the global high-technology hub of Silicon Valley, some parents report that they are panicking about the influence of digital technologies on their children. Fears about the current US reliance on digital technologies has pervaded many of the discussions within the digital temperance movement and framed many calls for people to opt out of digital technologies. The chapter also presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book.