Social Science & Social Changes - Essay Example

SOCIAL SCIENCE & SOCIAL CHANGES Humans are social animals. To socialize with similar people having similar beliefs, thinking and ways of life and tomake communities, interact, communicate and share their similar interests are some of the needs that need to be fulfilled for the development of a human being in for him to lead a complete life to its fullest. To fulfill these and many other purposes, humans form societies. These societies have their own norms, beliefs, rituals, customs, standards and practices, etc. The size of a society may vary from a small group of people to large communities depending upon the nature of the society. Although the existence of societies has many benefits and advantages altogether, but one of the biggest advantages of having a society is the increase in the speed of development in any way, be it industrial development, mental development, educational and technical development, technological development or any other form of development for the betterment of people living in it because a person living alone, not interacting with anyone can never come up with such thoughts and ideas that a person who lives in a society among many people can, since he'll have much more exposure to the needs and wants of the people on the whole, any problems that are being faced, any new development that is necessary and is needed and so on and so forth. In this way, these choices decisions rather become collective and cooperative.1 The history of societies dates thousands of years back. The first societies in the world were small groups of people living and working together for themselves and a few others around them. Then they gradually came together and the societies grew into villages which eventually developed into cities. Slowly and gradually, these cities came closer forming different nations of the world. In this way, along with the growing population, the societies grew into civilizations and prospered over hundreds of years. The social orders that initially comprised a bunch of people, with the passage of time became large communities and large nations. Now, the whole world is coming closer day by day and is becoming one big global village. The current global trend supports globalization that emphasizes on living like a one big global community.2 With all these changes in societies, along the course of time, there came many opportunities, new possibilities and broader horizons, but with that equally came many risks, threats, uncertainties and crises. Cultures changed and so did people. With the new developments there came better education, better health, better life style, better communication and transportation, better techniques, procedures and processes, in fact, a whole new way of life; and with passing time, this process of evolution of the societies is becoming faster and faster that the way the social changes have bombarded us in last five decades, it had never done before. If we look at the life of the human being not very different from us who lives fifty years ago, we find such huge differences that it becomes very difficult to compare. Science and technology has prospered so much that the diseases that were thought of as completely incurable can now be treated using advanced techniques and processes. Treatment of life threatening diseases like cancer or life endangering situations like failure of a vital organ of the body is now possible and thus more and more precious lives can be saved. The new researches promise better education and better learning in a vast variety of areas. Researches are being conducted in practically every field of life. Science and technology has made life so easy that many tasks can easily be accomplished by just a flick of your finger over a button so the work that used to take weeks can now be done in days. So many things that man could only dream of as something miraculous are now a part of our every day lives. Life has become automatic; automatic cars, automatic machines, automatic gizmos and gadgets, even automatic homes. All one has to do is press a button and bingo! The life that used to be shown in the cartoon called "The Jetsons" is fast approaching and an era of automation has already started emerging.3 There are a very large number of opportunities in every field and any thing and every thing that one can think of is now possible one way or the other. For instance, rain is supposed to be a natural thing, but with technology, artificial rains are possible. Infertility was an incurable problem, but using artificial fertilization, even the unfortunate parents can now be blessed with a child. Genetics has prospered so much that the failed organs of one's body can now be artificially grown and transplanted. With changing environment, even the thinking of people has totally changed. The norms of the society, the beliefs, the rituals and the customs are evolving and changing at a very fast paced. In a modern society, there is no difference between men and women which has increased opportunities for women. Girls can get better education than before and can work side by side with men and can get even better. Not only at the educational and research level, but the whole aspect of life is changed altogether. The fashions that used to prevail in the previous decades are obsolete now. Newer kinds of clothes, new fashions, and new ways to carry oneself are emerging every day and the pace of the changes in such fashions is much faster than ever before, mainly due to increasing speed of communication. The news from one corner of the world takes not more than some seconds to reach the other edge of the world. The speed at which one can travel has increased drastically as well. Moreover, the defense mechanisms of the countries have changed altogether as well and newer technologies and machines provide better protection and security from enemies. All in all, over the last fifty years, life has become faster, modern, easier and better. There is a huge pile of new opportunities and choices in practically anything that one can think of.4 But, there is another flip side of the coin, which is as disastrous, destructive and threatening as the previous side was beautiful. With all these growing advancements, the risks, threats, uncertainties and crises all around the world are growing at an equally fast pace. The technological instruments, like cellular phones, computers, televisions, internet and many other gadgets and different machines, which help us automate or lives, are equally dangerous for our health one way or the other. Moreover, since all we have to do is sit and click and flick these buttons, these devices have made us lazy. Especially our youth have been reduced to nothing but a bunch of couch potatoes.5 Another hazardous impact of these advancements is on our environment and the biosphere that is decline at a rate faster than ever and the major cause of that is the increasing toxic waste in all three forms of matter, i.e. solid, liquid and gas. These environmental hazards in turn pose great dangers to our health as well. In addition to all of this, there is increasing uncertainty regarding the limited resources available and there are wars going on around the world over these resources, mainly oil and petroleum. It is just because of these developments that people are dying and fighting and the earth and environment is being destroyed. It is just because of these advancements that the wealth and power goes to some and all others don't even have basic needs of life like food and shelter. Therefore, I conclude, that although these social changes have contributed a whole lot to the betterment of human beings, in enhancing life across the globe and in bringing people together and that it has provided us with great opportunities and endless horizons, but at the same time, it is the sole cause of many problems being paced by the humans and other species across the planet and is a source of most of our miseries as well posing dangerous threats and risks and increasing the uncertainties in the world.6 REFERENCES 1. Alexander Rosenberg (2007). Philosophy of Social Science. Westview Press. 2. Roger Trigg (2000). Understanding Social Science: A Philosophical Introduction to the Social Science. Blackwell Publishing. 3. F. Allan Hanson (2004). Meaning in Culture. Routledge. Read More