How Technology Affects Society - Research Paper Example

How Technology Affects Society? Lecturer: Introduction Technology has been a main source of change in society throughout history; however, the last few decades have witnessed a complete overhaul in the way people interact with the introduction of cellar devices, computers and most significantly the internet. The advent of the technological revolution enabled development of major technologies that have affected the society in various ways like the way people communicate and interact; as well, society has been instrumental in the development of the technologies. Nevertheless, the technological advances have various concerns in the society like their impacts on the traditional business models and interpersonal relations. According to Sutton (2013), incorporation of technology in schools has been essential for the success of students because of the shifting times and the increased demand for tech savvy people. Therefore, the study shows that the 21st century classrooms have adjusted to the technological revolution in order to prepare students for the technological world. Hence, technology managed to change the way society perceived classrooms in terms of chalk boards and writing of letters, this makes the 21st society demand technological advanced individual propelling classrooms to also require technological advances. This raises the concern that computers are taking away manpower which seems to be true; moreover, human experience is significant in learning, which raises the concern of reading literature on computers. In his work, Sutton assumes that people accept technology capabilities, which propel advancement of the human society while appreciating the new technologies. That author argues that although it is easy to see the social issues associated with technology the impacts have to be addressed after a thorough understanding of what technology does to the society. The main social concern apart from the changes in interpersonal relations and the divide in social classes is the decreasing level of capability in individuals because of the technologies that seem to do almost everything. According to Lee (2002), the last few decades there has been increased development in computing and communication with indications that the progress and the use of information technology will carry on in a fast pace. Currently, innovations within information technology have wide reaching effects on various domains of the society with policy makers acting on issues such as economic productivity privacy protection, intellectual property rights as well as the affordability and access to information. Lee points out that one of the significant outcomes of innovation in IT is probably the electronic commerce that takes place on the internet, which is a new way of conducting business. According to Lee (2002), progress in IT affects large sectors like communications, finance and retail trade; moreover, advances in IT have been venturing into education and health services. Lee shows that computers are prevalent within businesses, which raises concern regarding deskilling of the traditional blue collar workers and even other workers as well. Moreover, the author raises the concern regarding the difficulty employment impacts associated with computers and communications because people seem to be replaced by computers and communication. Lee argues that computers and communications lead to changes in types of workers needed for various occupations. Moreover, he argues that technology both creates and destroys jobs, which underlie changes in skill composition in employment. The author points out that the rapid increase in computing and communication raise considerable concerns regarding privacy both for private and public use. The author assumes that with technological advances the society is becoming inevitably dependent on the technology because of the creation of vital infrastructure that to some extend ensures societal dependence on the infrastructure. Lee argues that dependence on technology is risky because failure in technological infrastructure has the ability to result in collapse of economic as well as social functionality. According to Vannoy and Palvia (2010), human innovation together with the internet and other communication technologies produce a platform for social as well as business networking through formation of a community and communication link. This elaborates that as internet and other communication technologies are embraced by individuals and embedded in daily lives this result in development of social structures that are changing the way people interact and communicate. Moreover, the changes are also facilitating fundamental changes in business practices; therefore, as technology affects society, also society exerts pressure on technology because technology that was once considered to be a vehicle for delivering subscriber information was adopted by end users as a driver of social behavior (Vannoy & Palvia, 2010). The authors assume that prevalent technology acceptance never fit within social computing but the society creates and co-creates value of the technology that eventually results in embracing technology-based service. The authors argue that some technologies like file sharing were intended to enable remote access of digital files but they have been adopted by consumers as a way of sharing music and other files in the society. The authors point out the concern of increased difficulty of formally governing technological development based on the conventional institutional power. The development in technology also raises concerns regarding their impact on traditional business models as indicated by the impact technology has had on the music industry. According to Sutton (2013), the large scale impact technology has had on society involves the way computers have changed the manner in which individuals interact. Moreover, Sutton (2013) shows that relations among people have changed because of the computers and internet and the way people work and communicate with computer networks destabilize many conventional social categories and interactions. Lee (2002) complements this concern by showing that computers are taking over some jobs previously carried by individuals posing a challenge to employment in those jobs. Moreover, since technology according to Sutton allows communication that is mediated by computers, young generations are at risk of losing the ability to communicate properly in face-to-face situations because they are accustomed to conversing in the cyberspace. According to Sutton (2013), when individuals get caught up in the capabilities of computer and virtual society, the individuals end up being disconnected from real world because they no longer develop personal relations. Moreover, Sutton (2013) points out that technology is to blame for a large part because for the loss of patience in society since the modern society needs everything to be done faster. Lee (2002) shows that computers and computing technology affects real time transactions and function make intermediaries like stockbrokers, sales clerks and travel agents redundant. This argument complements Sutton’s (2013) who indicates that mundane jobs such as working in assembly line have been taken over by computers; moreover, recently computers are even eclipsing all jobs even the ones that are considered intellectual. Vannoy and Palvia (2010) introduce a new perspective with regard to the concerns raised by technology in the society by showing that even the society exerts pressure on the technologies resulting in the development of technologies targeting the society. The authors seem to take up the assumption that the other two sources fail to focus on mainly the society’s responsibility in technological development. Vannoy and Palvia (2010), by embracing technological advances the society has been negatively affecting some conventional business models like music industry since technology allows people to share music using their computers and even smartphones. The quick nature of delivery and service provision associated with technological innovations is propelling the society to be impatient as shown by the society’s desire for fast delivery and provision. All the sources are similar in that they all point out consequences associated with technology to the society; for instance, they all show that technology has been brought significant changes some of which are good but others that raise a lot of concern for the society. Sutton (2013) and Lee (2002) show that technological development significantly affects interpersonal relations as well as the conventional models of doing business in the society. Vannoy and Palvia (2010), complement these views by emphasizing that technology significantly affects social relations especially with the advent of technologies that allow development of virtual societies. The sources have been useful in elaborating and showing that the society is intertwined with technology, in addition, the sources consider technology to be an external force that is exerting influence on the society (Winston & Edelbach, 2014; Das & Kolack, 2008). The fact that technology advances alter the way conventional business is carried out and interactions between individuals in the society are very compelling in the various concerns raised by the sources. The fact that advances in technology facilitate computers to takeover tasks previously carried out by individuals is compelling since it shows that technology threaten jobs for some employees like stoke brokers. As well, the fact that technology is capable of interfering with the capability of interacting with people especially children is highly compelling since it poses a challenge for the future generation. Moreover, the fact computers are taking over not only the mundane jobs like the production line but also jobs that require high-skills and are better paying like stock brokers is also more compelling. All of these effects associated with technology are compelling since they show the degree to which the society has engaged in technology making it hard to differentiate what technology is supposed to do from the roles associated with individuals. References Das, M., & Kolack, S. (2008). Technology, values, and society: Social forces in technological change. New York: Peter Lang. Lee, K. R. (2002). Impacts of Information Technology on Society in the new Century. Sutton B. (2013). The effects of technology in Society and Education. Education and Human Development master’s Theses. Paper 192. Vannoy, S. A., & Palvia, P. (2010). The Social Influence Model of Technology Adoption. Communications Of The ACM, 53(6), 149-153. doi:10.1145/1743546.1743585 Winston, M. E., & Edelbach, R. (2014). Society, ethics, and technology. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. Read More