Simply put, technological determinism is the belief that technology shapes society in some way. Though there are variances, with two main branches of: * **Hard determinism,** society has little to no control over the direction or impact of technological change * **Soft determinism,** technology is significant but not all-encompassing in its complexity In this view, the development of certain types of technologies are seen as an inevitability, like the world wide web. The alternative is [[Social determinism|social determinism]], where society and culture are seen as the primary drivers of technological innovation and change. [[@oliverTechnologicalDeterminismEducational2011|Oliver (2011)]] posits that [[Activity theory|activity theory]], [[Communities of practice|communities of practice]], [[Actor-network theory|actor network theory]] and [[Social construction of technology|social construction of technology]] offer alternative positions