When technology becomes thinking

In this chapter we argue that communication technology is relevant to the debate about idiographic versus nomothetic methodologies. Recent applications, such as social networks (SN) and user-generated content (UGC) are able to foster reflexive thinking. To explain how technology participates in reflexive thinking two connected loops are described: (a) between externalization and internalization; (b) between individual and society. Both loops are described with reference to real educational experiences where technology plays a relevant role. With regard to the externalization/ internalization loop, we maintain that, once in the Internet, an event is externalized through objectification and then individuals reinterpret each externalized event, including it into an internal world again. As far as concerns the individual/society loop, we argue that when an individual act of thinking is embodied in a shared sign within the digitally mediated social world, it is intersubjectively elaborated. The intersubjectively elaborated signs then return inwards to shape the formation of individual experiences on the inside of thought. These two loops are dynamic two-way processes; by interacting they become progressively deeper and more extended. The intersection of these two processes makes technology able to extend the space of reflexive thinking by opening up new dialogic spaces and expanding dialogic space. Our final argument is that, like thought, knowledge is neither purely nomothetic nor purely idiographic but always to some extent dialogic in that it depends on the tension between inside, “idiographic” and outside, “nomothetic” perspectives.