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Some may also argue that te chnology has significantly impacted the medical field greater than most other areas. Consid ering all of the new procedures, treatments, and cures, it would certainly be hard to ignore what t echnology has allowed doctors of all types to accomplish. However, there are a fair share of cons as well, some of those stemming from inventions that could also be argued to have a positi ve impact on society. Although modern society has been both positively and negatively affe cted by technology in numerous ways, it is quite apparent that the positive impacts outweigh the egative ones via impact and significance.
Our modern society has been positively affected by technology in an unimagi nable number of ways that range from something as simple as the way one prepare s his or her breakfast with steel silverware, to the way one sees at night with the use of a flashlight. However, despite those two examples being as easily recognizable and relata ble as they are, often times the ideas that require deeper thinking result in a better understa nding of the subject, and therefore an increased conception of the topic.
If one were to do replicat e that exact same Jimenez 2 rocess, but with the greatest positive impacts of technology on society as the subject, he would certainly conclude that the advancements in communication and connectedn ess, improvements to the education system, increased agricultural efficiency, and revolutionized mo dern medicine would be atop that list. Communication today is not only more advanced and simpler than ever before, but it is also more important and necessary to modern society, when i t comes to society’s ability to function.
Besides the internet, people now use radios, smartphones, social media, faxes, and even televisions to connect to the world around them. Individuals can als o video call one another using services such as Skype and ooVoo, which are especially benefici al to couples, relatives, and friends who are unable to find the time and or money to meet u p with each other in person. Reaching a peer in the 21st century is only a few clicks and a “send” a way with the use Of text messaging services.
Besides texting services, the creation Of social me dia on the internet is another great way for one to stay connected and updated with the lives of t he people around them; Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, just to name a few, are modern day s cial media services that have revolutionized the meaning social connectedness. updatin g statuses that may share one’s current whereabouts, doings, or feelings as well as sharing photo s has never been easier; especially since a single post can be seen by millions of people worldwi de within mere seconds. The vast, volunteer written encyclopedia Wikipedia, the largely ama teur produced Youtube video service, the massive Flickr photo repository, the sprawling Hu ffington Post blog compendiumall of these popular media services were unimaginable before th e Web came along’ (Carr 85). Since the creation of the internet, tens of hundreds of websites and services have been created online to lessen the hassle of connecting with the world through othe r arduous means.
Newspapers are slowly being phased out, and that’s all thanks to services suc h as Wikipedia, Jimenez 3 which holds an unthinkable amount of information, and other news sources t hat have since made the transition to using the web as a tool rather than viewing it as a threat. However, the improvements to communication extend farther than social con nectedness; they also positively impact the way that businesses function. With the recent invention of social networks like facebook and twitter, business can create business pages then get followers for these pages.
The process is so simple and free. For some businesses, they set a budget for building a fun base for their pages, so they use these pages to update and co mmunicate with their followers”. (Use of Technology in Communication. ) With the help of technolog Y and the internet, businesses are able to more easily reach out to their consumer base as well as their investors and suppliers. Another positive impact on society deals with how technology has improved t e education system. First, technology has allowed classroom lessons to be taug ht much more efficiently by teachers.
Projectors and computers are replacing whiteboards a nd textbooks. Students no longer have to search restlessly through old textbooks and nonfi ction books from their local libraries for research, almost everything one could possible need ca n be found online via the use of online databases. In addition, assignments can be completed m uch faster and with less of a hassle thanks to technology. Applications such as Microsoft Word an d Powerpoint, as ell as Google and its various home office applications, allow students to writ e essays and finish projects without much hassle.
Furthermore, teachers are able to help student s and their parents stay updated with grades using Infinite Campus, and other alike services. This is extremely beneficial and helpful because it results in better grades and performances b y students as their parents are able to check and view their grades whenever they want. Jimenez 4 Technology has also positively impacted both agriculture and farming. “In agri cu Iture, time and production are so important; you have to plant in time, harvest in ti e and deliver to Stores in time.
Modern agricultural technology allows a small number Of peo ple to grow vast quantities of food and fiber in a shortest period of time” (Impact of Technolog y On Society). Modern day machinery has had a massive, positive impact on agriculture. It h as allowed farmers to work faster and more efficiently as well as plant more crops on larger piece s of land. It has also allowed farmers to grow genetically modified plants, which are able to re sist disease and pests as well as both grow faster and bigger.
Irrigation systems have also bee n a positive yproduct of technology; they not only allow larger amounts of crops to be w atered, they also allow crops to be grown and harvested in dry areas which wouldn’t normally be able to support them. These effects are extremely beneficial to the consumers as well becaus e more produce means lower prices. It is quite apparent that technology has positively impact ed society because it has allowed better communication, improved education, and an increase in agricultural efficiency.
Nonetheless, there are also countless ways that modern day society has been negatively affected by technology. Some Of these negative impacts may seem quite Obvi ous, while others might not. Regardless, the fact of the matter is that technology is indeed impa cting society in harmful and unwanted ways. Some of the most impactful ones would include how its creating issues socially, diminishing earth’s natural resources, distracting people from their responsibilities, and polluting the earth. According to Sherry Turkle, ‘V”e’re get ting used to a new way of being alone together.
People want to be with each other, but also elsewhere… people want to customize their lives. They want to go in and out of all the places they re because the Jimenez 5 things that matters most to them is control over where they put their attentio n. ” Despite the fact that social media services such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and others ar e able to keep one updated when it comes to his peers, the reality of the situation is that they ar e only updates that are being received; nothing more.
Although one can easily use his or her smar tphone to reach his or her peers via text or a social media source no matter where they are as Ion g as they have an internet connection, the truth is that they aren’t really there with them. Readi ng status updates and scrolling through a feed of photos posted by one’s “friends” doesn’t actua Ily help them connect. First off, there is a major difference between being friends with som ebody on facebook, and actually being friends with somebody in real life.
Now its not to say that fr iends on facebook can’t be real life friends, because of course they can. Simply put it, not all frien ds on one’s facebook friends list are actual friends. Second, being there with somebody in person and actually spending time with them is what helps make connections and helps t hem connect with ach other. Meaningful experiences and memories are what defines a relatio nship between two people. Both text messaging and social media services can also be manipulat ed by users to harass others; this is commonly known as cyber bullying.
From the comment section s found on Youtube videos, to the Facebook wall of any bullied individual, the reality of th e situation is that cyber bullying lives and thrives in every corner of the internet. “Severe, longte rm, or frequent cyberbullying can leave both victims and bullies at greater risk for anxiety, de pression, and other tressrelated disorders. In some rare but highly publicized cases, some kids h ave turned to suicide” (Cyberbullying). Before the creation of the internet, bullying was a ter m most commonly used within a school setting to describe one student either verball y or physically harassing another.
However, in modern society, that is no longer the case. Bul lies are now Jimenez 6 emotionally harassing their victims online through the use of social media by writing out hurtful words and threats. The fact of the matter is that people become more confide nt behind the computer screen. People are more likely to voice their opinions because they feel safe, especially since its so easy to send messages and leave comments anonymously. Another negative effect of technology on modern society deals with earth’s na tural resources. The more demand for new technologies and advancement Of curr ent technologies, the more pressure we put on earth’s natural resources” (Impact of Technolog y On Society). As stated earlier, technology has improved business’ ability to reach out to their consumer base, and therefore sell more products. However, a negative side effect of this is that cr ating those products uses natural resources. And as the demand for products go up, the su pply of the nonrenewable resources used go down. The problem with this is that those r esources are exhaustible; they cant simply be renewed.
And as those resources become ha rder and harder to find, the prices of the products Will continue to climb until either the business is no longer able to make a profit, or the economy suffers a small collapse. Fresh water is also bec oming increasingly difficult to find around the globe. At the current rate that our society is on, the hunt for fresh ater will soon become a major issue where chaos would ensue. Already, we are seeing the effects of this lack of drinkable water. In some states, people are unable to wa ter their lawns as often as they wish; laws are put in place to regulate the water usage.
In other cases, droughts are beginning to happen much more frequently. The point is, although technolog y has helped businesses succeed and advance their products, the increasing demand for th Ose products are having negative impacts on our society because the manufacturing necessary for those products uses exhaustible resources. Jimenez 7 A third negative impact on society caused by technology involves the amount of time wasted due to the distractions that its created. “A 2010 Kaiser Foundation stu dy showed that elementary aged children use on average 7. hours per day of entertainment technology, 75 percent of these children have N’s in their bedrooms, and 50 percent of Nort h American homes have the TV on all day. Gone is dining room table conversation, replaced by th e ‘big screen’ and take out” (The Impact of Technology on the Developing Child). Children in tod ayes world are constantly having to deal with technological distractions. It is becoming increa singly difficult for them to focus on other tasks at hand such as homework, chores, and even fin ding time to be active.
The effects of the profound amount of time that children spend watchi ng W and surfing the web include struggling to keep attention, various physical disorders, and a limit to their creativity and imagination. Despite the fact that technology has vastly improv ed our society, it has also impacted modern society in negative ways because it has led to an in creasing distance among people, a decrease in the supply of natural resources, and an increase in distractions that pell out trouble for children trying to develop and prosper.
Modern society is constantly changing and evolving, be it for the better or wor se of humanitys future. The track that our society is currently on was a track that w as created long ago, though its creators and those who influenced it never could have predict ed that it would have taken the turns that it has. Quite honestly, modern society’s future is as uncertain as ever. There certainly aren’t a lack of theories out there, but that’s the issue: they’re all just theories. From the day that the first tool was created by a human long, long ago, mode n societys future then and there began writing itself.
The reason behind that is because of tech nology. Technology shapes what society is going to become. It’s impact on society is greater than most people Jimenez 8 realize, and that is simply because most people fail to realize how much they actually do rely on technology. But for those that are able to realize it, well they realize that it’s a frightening thought because the reality of the situation is that although technology is dep endent on humans, humans are just as dependent on technology if not more. Humans and techn ology will only ontinue to become more integrated together.