Main Aspects of Technology and Society - Coursework Example

Technology and Society by Contents Introduction………………………………………………..………………………………………3 Context…………………………………………………….………………………………………3 Effect…………………………………………………….………………………………………...4 Cause…………………………………………………….………………………………………...5 Conclusion………………………………………………….……………………………………..6 Solution……………………………………………….………………………………………..7 Bibliography………………………………………………………………………………………8 Introduction People nowadays live in a quickly changing but truly fascinating and spectacular world. Recent technological and industrial progress modernized and optimized everything around us. Almost each of our activities depends on the global communication technologies. Society in which people exist nowadays is based on the progress, never-ending struggle towards further prosperity and unbelievable explorations and discoveries in all the spheres of human knowledge. Society continues to move further and is always ready to conquer new barriers. Technologies that fifty years ago would seem like a miracle nowadays are simple parts of our day to day life without which we cannot exist because we depend on them not any less than we depend on ourselves and our abilities. Historically and practically progress in its most perfect and absolute meaning started after people of the Old World discovered, explored and conquered the New World. Progress as we know it today is a consequence of two colossal civilization events second of which is the rediscovery of our planet’s position among the other planets in our Solar System, Galaxy and the whole Universe. Due to these incredible discoveries people nowadays have telephones, automobiles, internet and television. If not for the Renaissance that preceded people’s need for practical changes with theoretical knowledge such global explorations would not be possible (Cormack, 2013). And without them science as we know it today which basically was founded by people like Isaac Newton, Galileo, Nicolas Copernicus and Rene Descartes simply would not exist. Great discoveries proved that despite the fact that people in their unimaginable arrogance thought they know and own everything the reality in fact was not what they suspected (Webster 2013). This proof of the insecurity and weakness of the human mind led society to think in a grander way. If all that surrounded humanity during thousands of years in fact was not right, then obviously there must be something else to look forward to, something new and great which will change everything and everyone. This new orientation provided necessary motive and challenged people with new possibilities (Dampier, 1948). The barrier of arrogance and egoistic and illusive feeling of omniscience was finally overcome. Wise words of Socrates “I know that I know nothing” beautifully echoed through the ages (West, 1998). This new starting point offered people everything they want and approved further conquering of the nature in order to provide the real and now complete man’s domination over the forces of the environment. Context A lot of things seem better when they start but, unfortunately, feel worse when they end and people even sometimes make wish that they didn’t start at all. That is because everything has its cost and nothing can be done without consequences which are very difficult and even impossible to predict (McClellan III, Dorn 2006). When we talk about progress it is really tough to generate one and only right thesis that will describe the situation in the most appropriate and honest way. The place of technology in the life of society and its effect on the people can be described both as a positive or negative thing. In order to generate truthful opinion such variety of thoughts should be balanced but to name progress either really negative or really positive event one must believe more than know because such an issue makes it hard to take a definite position. It is significant for our essay to state that the problem of connection between society and technology is not a problem of a definite nationality or country like Great Britain. This issue is wider and panoptic in its nature because it affects people of all nations, races and ages (Hjorth, 2008). Younger people are more adaptive to the technologies because they exist in nowadays world during most basic and foundational time of their life – childhood. They do not compare this world to the world of other times simply because they cannot know anything about it on an experience level. Effect Today people of different age depend on technology. Technology surrounds a person everywhere. People talk on the telephone with their friends and relatives, browse the internet and play videogames, go to work riding trains and automobiles. We cook with gas, take hot shower, fly to other countries on the planes and clean our houses with vacuum cleaners, we explore space. Electricity, fuel, informational and media presence are the things that we consciously and subconsciously depend on. Everything around us changes every time without a stop, all kinds of things ring, click, shine or make sure they are noticed any other way. The thing is people don’t notice them at all anymore. Take for example telephone and compare it to the simple postcard or written letter on a piece of paper. It would take so much more time to deliver a letter even with plane or automobile than simply make or take a phone call. On such simple example we see that one of the key reasons of technological progress is making people’s lives quicker and more comfortable. If we take average modern day consumer it will be clear that terms “quickness” and “comfort” are almost equal in his head (Harrington, 2011). That leads us further to the problem of progress as an existential or psychological issue. And this is the first noticeable effect of technologies on life. To be exact and precise I would name a modern average individual consumer lonely, unhappy, uncertain, and indifferent and apathetic (Wu 2014). Of course we are talking mostly about the Western commercialized, capitalized and structured strictly hierarchical society. But it is also clear that Eastern society adopted Western admiration of progress and so nowadays it really is not so significant what part of the world is analyzed because first problems are all the same anywhere (Shilling, 2005). Cause Modern day consumer has everything at once and this condition paradoxically makes him feel like he has nothing because he sees himself just as a part of huge machine that will work even without him or push him apart if he doesn’t satisfy the machine. I’m neither the first nor the last one to criticize our society where everyone feels estranged. What I want to do is to blame progress and technology as the main participants in making industrial society where people serve only as gears. Of course when we see recent situation at the first sight it all seems nice. But first sight can often be misleading. And the reason that all that surrounds us always seem like needed lies in the fact that we can’t imagine our life without environment in which we live. That is because to imagine such thing meant imagine ourselves in another way too or without us and people are what they are in any times, they stick to their identities and their identities are built by the environment. They struggle for something they think they need, they move somewhere just to move because person often wants something that he doesn’t need or even want. Never-ending desires and unbearable hunger for everything new and unknown misbalanced the demands of a human soul and mind. In a highly technological and mass communicative world full of information it is hard to develop a clear vision of things that surround us as people with free will. Such social and moral analysis is needed to justify the demand of masses towards technology and its never-ending growth. Conclusion So what can be said about advantages and disadvantages of the progress of technology? First of all it is the loss of the real human contact because of the social networks, mobile phones, internet etc. which eventually lead to the devaluation of the eye to eye and face to face contact (Winston& Edelbach, 2013). On the one hand people become closer to their relatives and friends but on the other hand it became not necessary for people to meet, shake hands and hug, kiss, feel the presence of each other (Harpe 2012). Social networks and mobile phones which are always active substituted the real human intercourse. The same thing with videogames or TV-shows which substitute our connection to the real life, nature and social environment. Identical situation with internet browsing and numerous sources of information available anytime that substituted our memory and ability to discuss without checking on with Google on any issue. Kids stopped playing outside so much, go to friends or play with simple toys with the help of their imagination. Technology changes the core of our lifestyle as it not only makes it comfortable and quicker but also making it tasteless. It is like great German psychologist Erich Fromm said: “Modern man thinks he loses something - time - when he does not do things quickly. Yet he does not know what to do with the time he gains, except kill it.” (Fromm, 1956) Technology gave us a lot of free time and this free time makes us bored with life because we no longer have the connection with the nature. Computers and videogames just like drugs and alcohol are the most popular refuge for the people who are deeply unsatisfied with everything that surrounds them. There is even a name for such people – escapists. They escape from their problems in the World Web or in the bottle, it really is not so different where to run away because it is one and same thing from which an individual tries to hide – his loneliness and the feeling of estrangement. The solution for that can be managed when technological abuse will no longer be the reason of human weaknesses and person could be self-sufficient even without them. Solution Technologies make our life easier but at the same time not so interesting. For almost everything gained by the progress there is a cost. We live faster but we don’t know what to do with our time. In a quick world it is hard to notice something. Where we go and what is the purpose of our journey? This is the question that new generations will ask themselves one day. Young and rebellious but lost children nowadays are ready to live equally with the technologies and even use them beneficially which is not so difficult really. But will the future man say one day “Enough!”? One can only hope because hope is in a nature of man just as his will to discover and run towards new explorations. The smartest solution is to exist in a harmonious and balanced way with technologies on one side and mother nature on the other. When such harmony will take its rightful place human existence will no longer serve an insatiable machine named progress. Bibliography Cormack L., Ede A. (2013) A History of Science in Society: From Philosophy to Utility. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. books.google.com. Retrieved from https://books.google.com.ua/books?id=LMcVHODa5N8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=A+History+of+Science+in+Society&hl=uk&sa=X&ei=T3RCVe_1JsnSU7KpgegO&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=A%20History%20of%20Science%20in%20Society&f=false Dampier, W. (1948) A History of Science and Its Relations with Philosophy and Religion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Archive. books.google.com. Retrieved from https://books.google.com.ua/books?id=6kM4AAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=A+History+of+Science+and+Its+Relations+with+Philosophy+and+Religion&hl=uk&sa=X&ei=xHRCVaPzFMzfUb6IgKgI&ved=0CBoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=A%20History%20of%20Science%20and%20Its%20Relations%20with%20Philosophy%20and%20Religion&f=false Fromm E. (1956) The Art of Loving. New York: Harper & Brothers. books.google.com. Retrieved from https://books.google.com.ua/books?id=pM8MzzntBRcC&printsec=frontcover&dq=art+of+loving+fromm&hl=uk&sa=X&ei=I3VCVbOLEITkUbHjgSA&ved=0CBMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=art%20of%20loving%20fromm&f=false Harpe J. (2012) The Disadvantages of Modern Technology. www.ehow.com Retrieved from http://www.ehow.com/facts_5558358_disadvantages-modern-technology.html Harrington, J. (2011) Technology and Society. Chicago: Jones & Bartlett Publishers. books.google.com Retrieved from https://books.google.com.ua/books?id=3y4LW3lAf9kC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Technology+and+Society&hl=uk&sa=X&ei=S3VCVZSmCoSvU63-gbgC&ved=0CBMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Technology%20and%20Society&f=false Hjorth, L. S. (2008) Technology and Society: Issues for the 21st Century and Beyond. New York: Prentice Hall. books.google.com Retrieved from https://books.google.com.ua/books?id=pEIhAQAAIAAJ&q=Technology+and+Society&dq=Technology+and+Society&hl=uk&sa=X&ei=S3VCVZSmCoSvU63-gbgC&ved=0CDsQ6AEwBw Plato, West, T. G. (1998) Four Texts on Socrates: Platos Euthyphro, Apology, and Crito, and Aristophanes Clouds. London: Cornell University Press Retrieved from: http://western.opac.marmot.org/Record/.b35221835 McClellan III, J., Dorn H. (2006) Science and Technology in World History. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press Retrieved from: http://www.google.com.ua/url?url=http://www.saeedhassan.com/freelibrary/index.php%3FScience%2520and%2520Technology%2520in%2520World%2520History.pdf&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&sa=U&ei=0ERCVebXAYb7UsW-geAH&ved=0CCoQFjAE&sig2=YtC1tOjok3DMeHgVGprkfA&usg=AFQjCNEUNZFrJIBL76z0UJH7SgKIwq8vOg Shilling, C. (2005) The Body in Culture, Technology and Society. Chicago: Sage. books.google.com Retrieved from https://books.google.com.ua/books?id=AHm9BREbqKkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=The+Body+in+Culture,+Technology+and+Society&hl=uk&sa=X&ei=y3VCVZmoFMH8UvrpgdAN&ved=0CBMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=The%20Body%20in%20Culture%2C%20Technology%20and%20Society&f=false Webster C. (2013) From Paracelsus to Newton: Magic and the Making of Modern Science. London: Courier Corporation. Books. Google.com Retrieved frm https://books.google.com.ua/books?id=1fzJEyy8HgkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=From+Paracelsus+to+Newton:+Magic+and+the+Making+of+Modern+Science.&hl=uk&sa=X&ei=AXZCVbr-OYvnUp_wgOgJ&ved=0CBMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=From%20Paracelsus%20to%20Newton%3A%20Magic%20and%20the%20Making%20of%20Modern%20Science.&f=false Winston, M., Edelbach, R. (2013) Society, Ethics, and Technology. New York: Cengage Learning. books.gogle.com Retrieved from https://books.google.com.ua/books?id=g9g-MTzCIJ0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Society,+Ethics,+and+Technology&hl=uk&sa=X&ei=OHZCVfvrFovXUYafgfgO&ved=0CBMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Society%2C%20Ethics%2C%20and%20Technology&f=false Wu T. (2014) - As Technology Gets Better, Will Society Get Worse? www.newyorker.com Retrieved from http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/as-technology-gets-better-will-society-get-worse Read More