Technology’s Relationship with Government, Society and Economy Essay Example

gathering was dropped as humans started agriculture –farming and animal domestication in North Africa and Asia Minor along fertile rivers. However, hunting and gathering persisted in some remote regions where it has thrived to date. With agriculture, populations multiplied and expanded due availability of adequate food and lives became more settled. This was a major technological advancement as it was accompanied by development of irrigation techniques. This was essentially a revolution, the first technological revolution.

With abundant food, and the need to keep moving, populations exploded leading to the first civilizations characterized by emergence of dwellings that morphed into cities. This growth led other challenges. For example, there was need to control and distribute irrigation water and also the need to organize the now numerous people living in each other’s vicinity. As a result, to regulate flow of water, canals were built. The canals required continuous maintenance and lots of labor. To run these systems, lots of organization was required. It should be noted technologies have always been two sided. Just like today when a new technology presents solutions and challenges, so were the technologies associated with the ancient agricultural revolution. The settlements became prone to floods considering they were located along river deltas.

Then came the industrial revolution about two and a half centuries ago. Animals of burden were replaced by coal fired steam engines. They were put to use in coal mines where they were used to expel flooded water. Later on, they were used in transportation and powering looms. These were followed by the invention of internal combustion engine.

McClellan and Dorn (2006) explain some of the advances in technology including construction as represented by

prehistoric structures like pyramids and others. Metal use to make tools that were more durable compared to stone tools came of age. All these inventions represented advancements from rudimentary technologies to more useful technologies that solved challenges that faced humankind right from prehistoric towards modern age.

Thesis statement

In the modern times, technology has been more influential than ever affecting societies, governments, the economy, the environment, education and every other sphere of human lives. Just like it was in older technologies, modern technologies have both positive and negative impacts on the institutions and individuals. It is the aim of this paper to elucidate the relationships that have been demonstrated in some of the fields’ interaction with modern technology. It also aims at elucidating some positive and negative impacts of technology in relation to government, social aspects and economic spheres and recommend accordingly.

Government and technology

One of the most important modern day technologies are the internet and mobile technology. The latter has seen great strides of innovation with the emergence of internet enabled smart phones. Governments’ (both national and local) response to the above named two technologies around the world has been diverse both within a single jurisdiction and different jurisdictions. The internet has massive ability to pass information to millions of users almost instantaneously. In a typical scenario, the government is usually the final entrant and participant long after a technology is unveiled. Most of the technologies that are impacting on the governments’ operations today are released by corporations usually for consumption by public.

Governments systems are slow to change. Governments want to efficiently provide services to their citizens and therefore they (governments) will in the long run have

to adopt some of these emerging technologies. However considering the late entrance of governments’ into technology and the need to retrain the staff on how to use the incoming technologies, the transition period proves chaotic and disruptive. This has negative impact on service delivery. To try and tame the disruption, the governments usually take longer durations to implement a new technology giving room for adjustments.

Evolution of new technologies is not only disruptive but also a costly affair for a government. Other than in retraining the staff, the government incurs other costs in procuring equipment required to use the new technologies. Some of these equipments are quite expensive and may costs may run to millions of dollars.

Another challenge with government use of internet is in form of securing its information. Not all information held by government should be revealed to public. Releasing some of such information to the media or any other online platforms could end up compromising a country’s security or passing on secrets to foreign enemies or their agents. It is essential that as government moves from hard copies to digital and electronic copies, that caution is taken to protect such data especially where military and national intelligence are involved. This is especially critical considering vulnerability of digital information to hackers.

The government holds lots of data that is private and confidential. Such data may belong to private citizens or corporate organizations (EGOV2004). It is imperative that such information must not leak to the wrong hands. Such data is held by government on behalf of its citizens. If systems are bleached, the privacy of affected is compromised. This calls for government to hire the most qualified

personnel (IT specialists) to protect such data. This is usually not the case meaning that the integrity of peoples’ information in government hands cannot be guaranteed.

However, it’s not all gloomy for government and internet. Some local and national governments have used the internet platform to pass on crucial information to citizens in their jurisdiction (Cibinic, Nash and Nagle. 2006).  This information may range from adverse weather predictions to anticipated tsunami. By so doing, lives are saved and property salvaged. In other cases the information may be in form of security alerts possibly encouraging citizens to remain indoors or to avoid particular localities where intelligence sources believe there is a high likelihood of attacks. Owing to the fast manner in which information is passed on over internet, such alerts will reach targeted recipients in millions and in good time.

Moreover, local and national governments have embraced internet to interact with residents. The government shares information on vital operations that are of interest to the members of public. This may include projects being undertaken by the government, advertisements and other form of information (Mayer and Lazer, 2007). This kind of information flow encourages public participation in the national affairs. It creates a platform for people to analyze and if necessary question what the government is using the resources on. This not only boosts transparency but also encourages transparency (Noveck, 2009).

Technology’s Social Impact

Internet and mobile phones have by far altered the lives of individuals especially the youth generation. There have been good impacts as well as negative impacts. These two technologies have had unprecedented impact in lives of people, literally altering schedules and entire lifestyles. This has led to

a social revolution where interactions between humans have undergone a major transformation in terms of how they relate and communicate.

One of areas affected is that of social development of kids and young adults. Youths and kids in different parts of the world have developed addiction for both online games and internet that it has virtually taken over most of their free time to the extent that they no longer in spare time to learn social skills. Such kids will lag behind on most other aspects of life and often they will only be found discussing the games they play online (Great Britain 2008). They also show lack of adeptness in holding an important conversation or discussing an important issue. Some of these games are violent and therefore pose a detriment to the growth of the children. These kids may have challenges relating with real humans around them. Nowadays, face to face communication is getting rarer with most people especially young adults preferring texting or calling rather than face to face communication leading to weakening of family and social ties. Online interactions and networking come with risks to children including cyber bullying and exposure to pornographic material.

Television has also influenced modern lives a great deal. Cultures of different societies have been influenced by what is depicted on TV screen world over. Watching TV for hours a day is a common feature of many people’s lives. By so doing, other forms of human interactions are inhibited (Harrington, 2009). There is lesser time allocated for family, friends and even play and exercise. Less activity leads to likelihood of developing obesity. Being exposed to TV forms part of basis for

peoples understanding of the world, affects their beliefs and also impacts on how they view others. Fashions, popular cultures and preferences among people have been influenced by depictions on the TV. These could be either detrimental to the society or not. At the same time the TV brought information in form of news and entertainment vividly to the sitting room. As a strong tool of influence that it is, the TV has also been used to relay informative and educational programs, weather forecasts thereby positively influencing lives by facilitating better planning.

 Technology and Economy

A countries economy is highly dependent on the technology available to them. The level of technological knowhow influences productivity. Also, the cost of producing goods and services is directly tied to the type of technology in application. A crude and outdated technology is a liability to a producer or a manufacturer and the nation at large. Countries and populations that are technologically advanced tend to have higher economic developments than countries that are lagging behind in technology.

Globalization

Advancements in the information sector have been the major driving force behind the phenomenon of globalization. Computers and internet enabled has become a common thing and people from different parts of the world can communicate with utmost ease leading to a global integration (Archibugi and Michie, 1997). This is a change that occurred so fast-only in the previous two decades the mobile phone was a luxury owned by only a few individuals. The rapid spread and use of computers and internet has been akin to a revolution-IT revolution. Globalization, due to ease of transmission of information, has led to ease of doing business both at the national

level and international level. The IT sector has kept on growing .With the fiber optic technology, data transmission can only hasten. There is no single field of human’s life that has not been influenced by IT and globalization including education, health and journalism. IT has found its way into being integrated with every other form of technology.

Jobs at stake

Adoption of a new technology brings around new efficient ways of carrying out tasks, requiring less manpower. While this may be synonymous with lower costs on the part of employers, it also means a creation of need to send away some staff whose roles in the organization will have been taken over by the machines. This is a common phenomenon that occurs time and again almost every time a company or an organization adopts or upgrades to new technology. When computerization coupled with automation is adapted, a number of people end up redundant (Forester, 1985). In the future as robotics expands, even more people will lose jobs. This is an example of technology negatively impacting on human lives-loss of livelihoods.

E commerce

This is the dimension the modern business has taken characterized by making business transactions including buying and selling and funds transfer electronically. The internet has been harnessed to provide a platform for carrying out advertising and even closing transactions effectively (Deans, 2004).  This has been a boost to businesses, big and small as they reached out to new clients far and wide. This is an advantage of technology application.

Limitations and Conclusion

The entire scope of technologies in use in different fields is so wide and varies in complexity and in application. It was therefore not possible to mention

and discuss in detail most aspects of technologies in use today. Different technologies have played roles in agriculture, health, industries, and military fields among other areas.
Sometimes it is difficult to define where the benefits of a technology ends and disadvantages begin. Different authors view this subject in different ways. For example one believes gamming unhealthy for a kid’s growth while another feels the games are educational and productive.

Technology is the tool of easing work and finding solutions for mankind since time immemorial. It is a feature of man that distinguishes him from other forms of life. It is evident that just about every piece of technology and innovation that humans have come up with is double edged –having immense advantages as well as shortcomings.

There is no single facet of modern day life that has not in one way or the other been impacted by technology resulting generally in improvement in quality of life. Continuous improvements of technology have saved and even prolonged life. In other areas, technology has shaped people’s opinions and ways of life to such extent that some technological gadgets are simply indispensable almost becoming basic needs.

Recommendations

Governments have responded to IT innovations differently. Some have initiated crack downs on internet sites while others are slowly attempting to introduce regulations. The precise role a responsible government should play has not been defined. It is therefore recommended that various jurisdictions formulate laws that define government’s participation in this sensitive field.

The best way to gain the most from technology is by evaluating the benefits versus the costs. It is recommendable that the relevant authorities make interventions when it comes to pace at which some technologies are

being absorbed by different organizations so as to avoid negative implications like massive job losses while still not curtailing technological developments and research..
It is also recommendable that institution of family, the social and moral values of communities are protected .it is important that media outlets and major players in the internet industry develop a code of conduct so as to encourage responsible use of these technologies.

References

1. Winston, M. E., & Edelbach, R. (2012). Society, ethics, and technology. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
2. McClellan, J. E., & Dorn, H. (2006). Science and technology in world history: An introduction. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
3. Mayer-Schonberger, V., & Lazer, D. (2007). From e-government to i-government: Governance and information technology in the 21st century. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
4. Noveck, B. S. (2009). Wiki government: How technology can make government better, democracy stronger, and citizens more powerful. Washington, D.C: Brookings Institution Press.
5. Traunmuller, R., & International conference on electronic government, EGOV. (2004).Electronic government: Third international conference, EGOV 2004, Zaragoza, Spain, August 30 - September 3, 2004 : proceedings. Berlin etc.: Springer.
6. Harrington, J. L. (2009). Technology and society. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
7. Great Britain. (2008). Harmful content on the internet and in video games: Tenth report of session 2007-08. London: TSO.
8. Archibugi, D., & Michie, J. (1997). Technology, globalisation and economic performance. New York: Cambridge University Press.
9. Forester, T. (1985). The Information technology revolution. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
10. Deans, P. C. (2004). E-commerce and M-commerce technologies. Hershey, PA: IRM Press.
11. Cibinic, J., Nash, R. C., & Nagle, J. F. (2006). Administration of government contracts. Washington, D C: George Washington University, National Law Center, Government Contracts Program.