Who We are as Humans in 2013 - Essay Example

What Does it Mean to be Human in the Year With technological advancements developing at such a rapid rate, there are many who wonder whether technology is changing who we are as humans. To answer this, we must ask ourselves another question and that is, what makes us human? The answer of this question is different for every individual. Some define humans are social animals while others define humans as rational beings. In my opinion, the definition of human is important as much as it is important to understand what humans do and what they are capable of doing. Human beings are most adaptable to change and yet they oppose change. It is the inherent curiosity in human beings that compels them to bring change. Internet and such technologies have greatly changed who were as humans. Our parents no longer understand us; but this was also true for any other generation. The human of today may be different from the human twenty decades ago but human nature essentially remains the same- with the same emotions of love, hate, anger, happiness guiding them. While we as human are changing but our nature has remained essentially the same. We still have the same emotions; anger, hate, love etc. Merely the means of expressing this nature has changed. Now we shout out our anger on a Facebook status. Human nature remains essentially the same but layers have been added which makes it difficult to understand what actually is inside. With television in the world, the typical stereotypes have increased. Teens are typical teens because what they do and even what they think is fed to them through television and the internet. While marketing companies are targeting certain customers by understanding them, they are also molding them to be similar by developing stereotypes that these people aspire to be. As change occurs in humans, perspectives changes; needs change; and so does human nature to a certain extent. Here, we can take an example for Darwin’s theory. Darwin proposed that human beings came into this world as apes and later they evolved into human beings. The evolution here occurred as change occurred in the outside environment and humans had to adapt to this change. As they adapted, their entire system went through change. During the course of evolution, they lost body parts that were no longer needed. If we are to take Darwin’s theory to be true, then we can assume that humans in today’s age would naturally be different from their ancient counterparts. This is because it is the inherent quality of humans to change or evolve as the environment around them changes. As cars have taken over the world by storm, human beings no longer have to walk long distances. As a result, their diets have changed and so have their body muscles. In today’s age, human beings are quite different from what they were twenty years ago. Twenty years ago, internet had not entered the scene. People in those times gained information through their elders. Travelers brought in information of the outside world. They told stories and adventures, which were half true and half fable to satisfy the appetite of the local people. Though we cannot argue that information has become more accurate today but today the source of information has increased. Today the younger generation is as much informed about the world as the older generation; thanks to Google and other such technologies. Many argue that this information cannot be compared to real knowledge that comes from experience and with sitting down and reading a good book; something that ironically Google’s founder Eric Schmidt believes in (Schmemann). Choices for us have increased but so are the choices for others, divorce, sex change. We have more choices available to us than our parents. When we complain about the lack of good content to watch on the television, our parents are quick to retort that at least we have so many choices. They only had one or two channels to watch for their entire childhood. While this may seem difficult for us to grasp, but when one watches the content in today’s television, the lack of choices my even seem a blessing. This being so because with so many channels of the television, irrelevancy and monotony has increased to unbound proportions. By irrelevancy, I mean the useless information available. One example of that is showing how people make a fool of themselves when they do not know a camera is watching. Is that not irrelevant to such an extent that one wonders who watches such stuff? Reality television shows such as Big Brother confines different celebrities in a house and takes pleasure from having them fight their fights on daily television. And such shows are not one of a kind. They gain such popularity that shows on similar format and style quickly spread in other television channels. Parents decide the sex of their child, their genetic make up to a great extent. This means humans will be no more than robots that have been created by their parents (McKibben, 17). However, we should realize that genetic engineering has covered such grounds that allow parents to find out the genes of the child. This has not however impacted the world at large since there are laws that limit such behavior by people. These laws are developed by good standing people who take into account the implications of the law before making it law. It is these good standing people who ensure that morality within the system is maintained to a good extent. Morality is another topic of discussion for today’s human. This being so because the modern man is human-centric while before modernism, man was essentially god-centric. These god centric people aligned their actions and decisions according to the will of God. However, with modernism, man became human centric. He put his wishes before the wishes of God. This grew to such an extent that man became narcissist. The generation Y of today is known for being narcissistic. They use the internet as a medium to reveal about themselves. The internet may have been invented to allow man to express himself more conveniently but Generation Y took this one step further and expressed only himself. With the world changing at such a rapid pace that we do not have any inkling about our own family, we fear is that change is occurring at a rapid pace. The human in 2013 has changed to an extent that he is lost in the irrelevancy and monotony of the technological world including but not limited to the internet. Being a human in 2013 means more choices and thus more confusion but human nature is still guided by the same emotions as it was in the twentieth century. Works Cited McKibben, Bill. “The Posthuman Condition.” from Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age. Harper’s Magazine, April 2003: 15-19. Schmemann, Serge. “Are We Becoming Cyborgs?” New York Times 30 Nov. 2012. Web. 30 Dec. 2012. [http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/30/opinion/global/maria-popova-evgeny-morozov-susan-greenfield-are-we-becoming-cyborgs.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0] Read More