Technology and Social Change Essay Example

2010).

The ability to communicate through calls and messages has been made priceless with the invention of cellular phones. The time that could be used in traveling from ion place to another is saved by using phone calls. In cases of emergencies, they are an important gadget to use to call the police, friends, and relatives hence saving many lives. Phones are internet enabled and hence it is also possible to access websites for learning or entertainment purposes where one can download videos and songs from. However, most teenagers have been turned to make friends with the virtual world leaving them with a challenge on how to cope up with real life. Many teens are not sociable since most of the times they are on the phones chatting with other people online making those around such a people feel less important (Schneider & Schneider, 2009).

The Internet refers to a global network connecting millions of computers and other wireless internet enabled gadgets over an Internet Protocol (IP) address. The Internet provides the fastest, simplest and most efficient method of communication around the globe via Twitter, Instagram, Email, Whatsapp or on Facebook. The Internet has led to E-commerce which involves transacting business online. Now it is possible to access one’s bank account, pay for various goods and services online through the internet. The Internet has helped greatly to save human beings life especially in areas hit by hurricanes whereby the internet is used by weather forecasters to predict their behavior as well as monitor them. However, the internet has also impacted the society negatively whereby the internet has been used for various fraudulent activities especially in E-commerce where

many entrepreneurs have been conned. It has also led to cyber-attacks where people’s computers are infected with various viruses from the internet making many people lose vital information from their computers (Dewan, Ganley & Kraemer, 2010) .

Theories in sociology help us to view our social world from various perspectives which enables us to predict and explain the social world we live in. There are three major sociological perspectives that include the functionalist, conflict, and symbolic interactionist perspectives. Each of these perspectives offers a variety of explanations about the human behavior as well as social behavior.

Functionalist perspective mainly views the society as a system of interconnected parts that work together in harmony to maintain a particular state of balance and social equilibrium for the whole society. Social equilibrium refers to the theoretical state of balance in the social system between the internal and the external factors where a little disturbance in either causes a slight change in both the external and internal environments to achieve equilibrium in the society (Kendall, 2007). For instance change in society ways of living has attracted new lifestyle diseases such as type2 diabetes, heart diseases, and other diseases. From a functionalist perspective, the system of interconnections in the society must be under equilibrium; hence this slight change in one factor in the society for lifestyle diseases has made health technology being changed too so and devise ways to monitor and treat such diseases using the modern technology (Kendall, 2007).

Conflict perspective views the society as a composition of various groups and factors competing for power and resources. As far as society and technology are concerned, conflict perspective can be used to explain

why there is a digital divide among all users of technology in the society. Digital divide or digital split refers to the difference in amount information available between those people who have access to the internet and those who do not have access to the later, especially broadband internet. However, this does not mean access to the internet alone but rather to Information Communication Technology (ICT) and the media the different groups of people in the society can use to access information. Some individuals in the society are well up while others are yet to be financially stable; hence those who have enough money in the society will have the best Media and ICT services easily than the poor ones (Dewan, Ganley & Kraemer, 2010).

The conflict perspective can explain the digital divide from a sociological aspect. It notes that the society has a composition of various factors such as wealth inequality hence a competition for information between the wealthy and the poor ensue creating a digital gap is create. This spills over to the health sector, and access to modern technology treatment is available to the wealthier unlike the poor. This digital gap is slowly polluting the environment of developing countries where “dumping” by developed countries is occurring. The developed countries bring their outdated mobile phones as well as computers for use in the developing countries since they will be sold at a lower price but later will find their way into the landfills as technology changes (Kendall, 2007) .

Symbolic interactionism is the last perspective in sociology which deals with the micro-sociological perspectives of individual’s psychological dynamics when interacting with a certain small group of

people. It emphasizes that human behavior is greatly dependent on meanings and definitions created through symbolic interaction with others. It also suggests that our own sense of self is shaped by social interactions whereby we develop our self-concept from what we feel people view and see us (Reynolds & Herman-Kinney, 2003). Cultural lag refers to the time taken for the development of a material, invention and the making of appropriate adjustments corresponding to areas of nanomaterial culture.

Symbolic interactionism can be used to explain why there is a cultural lag in technology since it deals with how people view themselves according to how other people take them for. Similarly, when a new technology is discovered, it is upon people to embrace it or not for it to become popular. The technology cannot be in use if people do not adjust and embrace it similarly like how a human being will depict himself or herself according to how people interact with him or her. Hence cultural lag depends on how human beings interact with the new technology providing the presence of cultural lag or not (Kendall, 2007).

Technology is changing day in day out as people continue to make further discoveries. An example of an emerging technology is the creation of next generation robotics aside from those in the production assembly lines. These kinds of robots are going to interact with their environment freely and perform normal human tasks such as weed control, agriculture harvesting, serving people in hotels as well as taking roles of nurses. The new generation robots for example from Japan have been designed to help Patients out of bed hence showing us the new

kind of technology ahead of us. This however will have both positive and negative impacts on the society. The society will lose more jobs as they are taken up by the robots. The advantage includes they can save on labor force needed and are very efficient and do not get tired, unlike human beings (Davidson, A., & Charles, 2015)..

In conclusion, it is clear that technology and society are dependent on each other. A change in society changes technology and vice versa as discussed above. Personal computers are an important source of entertainment, research, learning as well as communication. However, it is through them that cyber bullying attacks happen, disadvantaging the society. Cell phones help in communication and entertainment. However, they are making many young people unsociable. The Internet is good and has greatly enhanced commerce. Cyber-attacks which are costly regarding information lost in case of a virus attack is spread through the internet. The three perspectives in sociology as discussed are symbolic interactionist, functionalist as well as conflict.

References

• Davidson, A., & Charles, S. K. (2015). Compliant Robots for Next-Generation Human-Robot Interaction.
• Dewan, S., Ganley, D., & Kraemer, K. (2010). Complementarities in the Diffusion of Personal Computers and the Internet: Implications for the Global Digital Divide. Information Systems Research, 21(4), 925-940. http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/isre.1080.0219
• Haugen, D., & Musser, S. (2007). Technology and society. Detroit: Greenhaven Press.
• Kendall, D. (2007). Sociology in our times. Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth.
• Reynolds, L., & Herman-Kinney, N. (2003). Handbook of symbolic interactionism. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.
• Schneider, D., & Schneider, D. (2009). The silence of the cellphones. IEEE Spectr., 46(4), 14-14. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/mspec.2009.4808397