The Effects of Technology and the Use of Online Market - Essay Example

?  s} s   Globalization and Technology Part one The following is a demonstration of how the effects of globalization are inevitable in modern day to day activities. It sets out to explore the various components that embody world civilization specifically the use of IT in our day to day operations. This is done through a 4hour track of communications and interactions with technology. This includes computers, phones/smart phones, portable listening devices, television, and video games. Today civilization has definitely come a long way from those days and if the advancements in the fields of technology, infrastructure, medicine, science and cultural integration are anything to go by and yet man has not seen the last of civilization. It has been argued that everything that man does and lives for in this world is all rounded to IT. In his essay “Civilization and its discontents” Sigmund Freud affirms this by reckoning that “it is simply the pleasure principle which draws up the program of life’s purpose.” A four hour track of my communications and interactions with technology As stated in the introduction above, technology is almost inevitable in our day to day activities. The following table is a distribution of my activities from the time I wake up in the morning to noon. Both the four hours are spent within the world of Information and Technology. Time Activity 8.00 - 8.30 AM Respond to Emails 8.30 - 9.00 AM Watch the morning news while taking breakfast 9.00 - 10.00 AM Attend the gym on my TV via recorded instructions 10.00 – 12.00 PM Went to the studio to record my demo. My daily activities start from eight in the morning as I sleep late from my night shift job. My first interaction with technology involves reading and responding to E-mails. This activity takes place between 8.00 AM to 8.30 PM. Being an online student, my lecturers send me reading materials and assignments online. This has made it possible for me to communicate with my lecturer at school and deliver my homework on time. Also, I use the internet to communicate with my fellow students and share information. If possible, we hold a group discussion via Skype every Wednesday. On my side, I can say that the availability of Information Technology has made it possible for easy conveyance of information. My next thirty minutes of the hour are spent taking breakfast while watching the morning news. After breakfast, I go to the gym on my television for one hour from 9.00 AM to 10.00AM. Since I do not have enough time to visit the gym in my locality, I use recorded instructions stored in a compact disc (DVD). This has helped me a lot in keeping in shape even regardless of my tight schedule. Again, this makes inevitable for me not to use Information Technology in my life. My next two hours (10.00 AM to 12.00 PM) of the morning are spent in the studio. This is where I go to do reviews and recordings of my upcoming school project. The presentation is supposed to be done in the next week, so I have to be well prepared and ready for the presentation. According to my own life experiences and requirements, I feel that I cannot survive without technology. This is because technology is the backbone of modern communication and makes our day to day operations much easier. Part two Nowadays to stay away from technology has become a very hard thing to do, almost impossible to do. Coincidentally, just a week ago, me and my colleagues were trying to evaluate how it could be to live a world with no technology. We all came to the conclusion that in the world of today it’s impossible to separate technology from our lives. However, we also noted that there are some instances where we can operate efficiently without technology. Following the discussion with my peers, I decided to put myself in to test by staying away from technology for one hour. This one hour was during my lunch time break. As usual, during my lunch hour break, I attended a prayer session at the prayer hall right next to my school. Immediately after the prayers, I went to the cafeteria to have my lunch. After grabbing my sandwich, I went on and joined fellow schoolmates for a chit chat just to pass time. There, I couldn’t help but notice that all my friends were talking whilst still engaged to their mobile phones. Just as we were about to finish lunch, I received a call from a friend wanting me to confirm my attendance to his party later that day to celebrate his promotion at work. Just as I was talking on phone, I realized a big bill board on the edge of the park advertising a new Smartphone. Since I had been interested on the phone, I couldn’t help to watch the live demonstration of the phone applications on the live broadcast on the bill board. After my phone conversation, I realized that some of my friends had started going back to class. Within no time, i found myself flashing out my mobile phone out again to check the time. That I didn’t know how it happened but I guessed it was reflex action since I was used to my mobile for time confirmations. Immediately after getting back to class, I did a memo reminding my fellow classmates on a proposed group meeting scheduled for later that afternoon. I decided to write the memo on a piece of paper and stick it on the notice board for everybody to see as it is strategically situated. Just after I had finished with the memo, I realized that the lecturer had already entered the class and there was no time to pin up the memo on the notice board. I was left with no option but to text them all and notify them about of the meeting. By the end of my lunch break, I had come to the realization that it was almost impossible to do without technology. Pen, paper and face-to-face conversation were just not enough. Part three Part one and two above talks of how we cannot avoid using technology in our day to day activities. The data in the first part is a clear indication that all our daily activities relate to technology. Technology connects us to the rest of the world. Technology is currently used for communication purposes. This can be explained by my first activity of the day which is to ‘read and reply to Emails’. Technology helps me to communicate with my lecturers from the comfort of my home. The availability of technology has made it possible for Universities to offer education services online. This has enabled busy students like me and many others to access education just like regular going students (Turkle, 220). Technology has helped academic institutions to reach out to students in the most remote parts of the world making education available for all. Technology has seen a great improvement in people’s lives. It is evident that most of the effects of Technology are positive and are largely welcomed. The past fifteen years has experienced tremendous developments in the improvement of living standards across the world. Significantly, the communication, education and health industries have since grown tremendously. The investment (local and foreign) sector has seen a lot of growth too. With these positive changes brought about by Technology, it is evident that the effects of Technology are beneficial to the whole world and therefore World Governments should focus on enacting new measures to promote Technology. This advancement in technology is accelerating the use of online market information globally at a very high rate. After all, a country’s market cannot satisfy itself. The business world of today is growing in overwhelming rate thanks to technology. Our societies are constantly changing. Key characteristics of this era are transformation, transmission and dominion of information (Turkle, 86). Technology has transformed the communication processes with Radio, telephone, satellite communication, cellular technology, wireless Internet bridging the gap in distance. Studies on the benefits of technology indicate that there has been a tremendous growth of the Gross World Product (GWP) from fifteen percent (15%) to twenty seven percent (27%) between the years 2002 and 2012. Statistics on the number of people traveling globally has increased from one (1) up to twelve (12) per every group of one hundred citizens in the United States (Turkle, 12). From the data collected in question one and two above, the lives of people have greatly changed from the current developments in technology. More so and in my own opinion, excessive use of modern technologies have made people lazy. For example, simple mathematical calculations like 56+47+56-65, a person will turn for a calculator instead of juggling his/her mind for an answer. Therefore, my advice is “even though we rely on technology to make our lives better and easier, we should not make technologies our habit”. Work cited Turkle Sherry. Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less From Each Other. New York: Basic Books. 2012. Read More