The Technological Sphere

Some would argue that DIY comes out of technological need and the frustration that existing problems are not satisfied by existing products or services. One could equally well argue that the purity of scientific or technological curiosity has created a natural DIY inclination. For decades, magazines such as Popular Mechanics, Mechanix Illustrated, and The Family Handyman offered a way to keep current on DIY technology information. Dissemination of DIY instructions on the Internet and the growing comfort with in digital technology has kept DIY a viable practice and philosophy in the 21st century. The DIY resourceful hackers and tinkerers look to technology for challenge and the reward of invention. DIY technology is tied very closely to the Open Source movement, which promotes access to an end product’s sources so that the product may be altered and improved upon. Open Source is a paradigm with its origins in computer programming but has come to be used as a philosophy for any kind of open method of authorship, spawning such projects as the Wikipedia. A second aspect that drives DIY is the desire for ownership of a world where science, medicine, and technology has grown vastly complicated. In recent years, DIYers have begun to question the cult of the ‘expert’; finding personal validity in doing their own technological repairs, and claiming the power to make their own medical assessments. Technology’s biggest impact has undoubtedly been on digital technology and more specifically communication technology. By democrating the channels of communication the proliferation of information and sometimes knowledge has exploded.