Control System Implementation and Documentation
How Technical Progress Affects Social Change
Technology is a basic recipe to modern life, that is, as technology advances so do the social aspect of human beings. Technical progress led to the development of the process of industrialization which, over the years has created employment opportunities for millions of people (Murmann and Frenken 928). Industrialization then led to urbanization whereby people began to change their lifestyle from agriculture to adopt city life. Hence, their behavior pattern evolved. The development of urbanization eventually led to modernization, which oversaw a complete change in the social aspects of human beings regarding tastes, food choices, recreational activities, ideas, dress habits, preferences and ways of communicating.
Technical advancement has influenced our modes of life thus peering into marriage, family, property, morality, and religion. For example, technological progress is making people more rational, scientific and secular than religious in their perspective. Communication and transportation innovations are causing a deviation of functions from decentralized to the central government of a country hence strengthening nationalism (Hekkert et al. 420). The adverse effects of technical progress are evident through unemployment and the modern state of warfare. The development of weaponry has led to anxieties and fears among humanity. In addition, the development of labor-saving machines creates less demand for human effort which leads to the loss of job opportunities (Frey and Osborne 259).
In the current world, information technology (IT) governs everyone’s life be it increase in computing power and the development of cell phones, handheld video games and individual digital assistants such as SIRI. The effect of technical progress is particularly felt among the youth and technology is greatly being implemented in education systems whereby students have significantly become tech-savvy. Numerous schools currently offer various computerized teaching options hence, indicating a high potential to revolutionize the learning environment to active from passive thus making education more subjective to the learner (Hekkert and Negro 588). Furthermore, computer technology in the learning sector has improved the dynamic capacities and needs of students thus offering the opportunity for deeper comprehension and processing of data. The increase of computer power in education has been observed to have a positive effect on student preparation for lectures, quality of notes recorded, student class participation and learning, their attentiveness and their desire to acquire more education.
Technology is increasingly evolving how society adopts communication. For instance, through the development of social media platforms such as Facebook and WhatsApp, the public, especially the youth has increasingly embraced online communication rather than face-to-face. However, non-personal communication platforms adversely affect an individual’s communication skills, for example, the usage of correct grammar, comprehension of body gestures and facial expressions (Hekkert et al. 422). Hence, youths who are addicted to online communication may have difficulty when they reach the workforce for instance verbally expressing themselves during interviews. Moreover, excessive use of video games among youths is highly linked to depression.
Technical progress also affects social behavior regarding how people make perceptions for example; people seldom make correct political interpretations when they use online communication instead of personal because of the anonymity provided by the internet (Hekkert and Negro 591). Internet users also offer more personal information on social media than they would through face-to-face conversations because of the notion that their actions cannot be traced. Hence, they would not incur the same consequences as in a real-life setting. Therefore it is vital to educate the public especially the youth on how to effectively use technology to avoid the adverse effects of irresponsible IT behavior, for example, cyberbullying.
Works Cited
Frey, Carl Benedikt, and Michael A. Osborne. “The future of employment: how susceptible
are jobs to computerisation?.” Technological forecasting and social change 114 (2017): 254-280.
Hekkert, Marko P., et al. “Functions of innovation systems: A new approach for analysing
technological change.” Technological forecasting and social change 74.4 (2007): 413-432.
Hekkert, Marko P., and Simona O. Negro. “Functions of innovation systems as a framework
to understand sustainable technological change: Empirical evidence for earlier claims.” Technological forecasting and social change 76.4 (2009): 584-594.
Murmann, Johann Peter, and Koen Frenken. “Toward a systematic framework for research on
dominant designs, technological innovations, and industrial change.” Research policy 35.7 (2006): 925-952.