Role of Modern Technologies in Our Life - Coursework Example

Role of modern technologies in our life Table of contents Introduction 2 Background 2 Argument 6 Role of technology in business 6 Role of technology in personal life 7 Role of technology in education 8 Counter argument 8 Role of technology in society and personal life 8 Role of technology in decline in critical thinking and analysis 11 Rebuttal 11 Conclusion 12 Introduction Technology has greatly impacted the way in which people currently communicate. Generally, there is a shift of how people relate to one another that has been brought about by people embracing technology the world over. Technology in many organizations has been thought to be a fast changing variable in the organizations and it has a huge effect on how the organization works, the organizational culture, how research within and outside the organization is conducted and the practices of the organizational employees and other stakeholders such as shareholders, suppliers, distributors, etc. as well . Using technology adds value to our life because technology plays important role in all the fields in our life such as education, business, industry, communication and many other fields. One the other hand, it has some disadvantages on the society and personal affairs and in declining the critical thinking and analysis. Background There is little doubt that the internet is changing every facet of life and is thus becoming an extremely powerful tool to provide people today with an array of entertainment options and most importantly instant access to information . Students and other researchers can receive help with work. Sites such as Wikipedia, JSTOR, Google, Facebook and many others are becoming every day tools that people just cannot do without . There is an email to help us inexpensively keep in touch with the rest of the world which includes friends and relatives. Not forgetting there is online TV and online publishing that is done at a lower cost and blogs, news sites, educational resources and social networks like Facebook that are literally changing lives. Whether you are a business entrepreneur or just one looking to be a business owner, the internet provides more information than any other resource in the world. There is profound opportunity too for businesses with the advent of the internet. Inventors and entrepreneurs continue to emerge, jobs have been created and several business opportunities for the sale of. There is growth in online advertising, various sites that cater for online sales and shipping like EBay, Amazon.com, and Overstock.com. Through starting huge internet companies such as Facebook, Google, Yahoo, LinkedIn and others, many have turned to instant millionaires and even billionaires from the virtual resources offered by the internet. The internet is indeed remarkable but we must not forget that new technologies contradict the culture that they emerge in, thus there are bound to be several problems associated with it. “Those who go online do decide to begin signing on risk becoming addicted to the internet” . Other major problems include cyber-crimes such as website spoofing, frauds and other spam mail. Many a times we have seen or heard the emails that entice us by claiming that we have won millions or even billions of dollars in inheritance and upon replying to the emails, we are added to spam lists and at the same time try to swindle our money. We have also seen and heard of the EBay frauds where after sending the seller the buy price, we never hear from them. Of course we cannot forget the scores of inappropriate adult content that is getting its way to teens and other youth despite how hard their parents try to fight through parental control and other measures of censorship. These are just representations of the internet’s negative influence. A response to this is that the society is embracing the profound benefits of the technology and information provided by the internet and is searching ardently for ways to alleviate or eliminate the problems associated with it. Examples are the various antispyware, antimalware, antivirus software that provide internet protection that we see on sale these days. We can also use this understanding of the impact of modern technology on personal relationships within organizations to make a general understanding of how technology has impacted life in the general world. In today’s world, where information moves almost beyond what can reasonably be comprehended, keeping up to date with all that is going on in world and current events, appointments, one’s social calendar and social life, it has become essential for many individuals to utilize advanced forms of technology just to keep up . The early 21st century saw the beginnings of the internet which ushered in a new modality of information sharing. The Internet, however, has its roots in public forums rather than industry or business focused. The vitality of this medium is contingent upon a continuous stream of individual users who regularly and repeatedly log in, point, click, comment, upload, share, tag, and create content within their individualized internet portals. Since its inception, social media has continued to evolve to meet the needs and desires of its current users while also focusing on continuously attracting new users. College student development is contingent upon a group of socio-cultural, cognitive, and psychological tenets that have a close relationship to an the growth experiences of an individual through his or her collegiate experiences . It has been posited that social networking sites will most likely have a significant influence on a student’s growth particularly in the psycho-social arena; however, some argue that there may be influence and implications in other areas including psychological and cognitive areas. Many argue that because of the use of the internet and other advanced technologies, many have lost the ability to communicate in more traditional ways: face-to-face, letter writing, telephone calls, and so on. Moreover, internet users are utilizing the internet and other social media forums to make interpersonal relationships and even develop romantic relationships via virtual sites. One of the primary demographics of internet users is college students that have effectively served to incorporate social media into their traditional college lives . In many ways, students live both in the land-based or physical world as well as in the virtual world; leading what some considers parallel lives. posit that social networking sites may offer an avenue for the development of greater social capital which may serve to further reinforce students’ likelihood of integrating Facebook and other social media sites into their regular routines. A suggestion made as to the possible reason for the purported decline in mature interpersonal relationships is social media and advances in technology. The following study will build a base of knowledge regarding several popular social media sites including Facebook, and examine the role social media plays in a college students’ development and interpersonal relationships. Technology has revolutionized and transformed the way in which people relate in one another and in this way it has greatly impacted the communication between people. Some of the technological devices which have been thought to cause these effects include televisions, radios, mobile phones, personal computers, laptops and other handheld devices. These devices have brought different technologies to our lives and have come to change how we establish ourselves in our day to day lives and how we relate to one another. As described above, it can be definitely extrapolated that technology has both negative and positive influences on our lives. By examining the positive and negative effects of technology, we can understand how technology has come to become a huge thing in our everyday lives. Argument There are many positive effects of technology. First, with the advent of the Internet, the world has become greatly interconnected and the Internet has greatly eased personal communication. No matter which side of the world a person in, it is very easy for them to converse with each other and through the cyberspace. Role of technology in business The internet has also changed the work industry by enabling tasks to be more efficiently done and with greater ease. Machines have digitized many processes and automated them to be more efficient and cost effective. This has led to the increase of revenues and profits for businesses as they are able to produce more products faster and at a cheaper cost. Technology has also brought changes to the advertising industry. Advertisements can now be designed to target a particular group of consumers. With the internet, mobile phones and other media available, campaigns can be designed to target a particular age group, gender or nationality. Role of technology in personal life The Internet has also had a great influence on how couples have formed and also how these couples relate to one another. There are many dating sites that have now come up in the world and it is from these dating websites that people have found matches to have relationships with. Many of these dating websites provide match making services which have become extremely popular around the world and these services help to create potential matches by looking at the similarities in likes and dislikes (interests and disinterests). These dating sites have become very popular around the world and they have helped to shape the dating world and have forged relationships that are not bound by time or distance. Almost all dating sites provide chat rooms which are a common interaction place where people go to spend their free time or alternatively they go to meet people with who they are matched up with for a chat. These dating sites also offer private chat rooms where when two or more people like each other, they can go to the private rooms to have a conversation which mutes the ‘noise’ created by other people in the common chat rooms. This helps to forge a greater bond between those chatting. Online dating is thought to be a replacement to face-to-face meet ups which were more common in the earlier days and has come up as one of the positive effects of technology. Technology has also helped to provide a cheaper and more affordable method of communicating with one another. Communication online on most websites such as Facebook, Twitter, via email, dating sites and other websites is usually free in most cases and even where it is charged, the charges are more affordable as compared to the traditional modes of communication such as snail mail and using messengers. These new methods of communication that have been brought about by technology are also much faster in passing the message across and in this way, they have had a huge positive impact on how people communicate with each other and thus on personal and interpersonal relationships. Role of technology in education Technology has greatly affected the education industry by providing varied resources from which students and other learners can learn about almost any topic they desire. There is Wikipedia and millions of online libraries and databases. Computers as a form of technology have also changed how people gather, analyze and store information. With computers being able to crunch millions of entries in seconds, they are more effective in analysis of data. Collection of data, for example, for surveys is now possible via the internet and these surveys can be modeled to be targeted to a particular age group or nationality, gender, etc. Counter argument Role of technology in society and personal life Technology has also had negative effects. One of these negative implications is that messages which were pretty simple and best delivered face-to-face are not delivered using the various other methods presented by technology such as using text messages and emails. This goes to show that technology has largely reduced socialization in the office and has contributed to weakening the previously strong bonds that had been forged between people in real life and also in the workplace. It can be clearly seen that there is a convenience that is afforded to the users who use various forms of technology to pass information. However, on the other hand, these forms of technology just cannot fill the space and convey the warmth and feeling that is afforded by the beautiful situation of a face-to-face meeting. In as much as various forms of technology can be used to pass information, these completely replace the feeling of a warm handshake and a person’s physical presence since it is quite difficult to convey feelings, emotions and reactions via these different forms of technology. This situation can be seen in the business world. In as much as it is possible and quite easy to negotiate a deal on the phone or via email, businessmen feel more comfortable when they have a chance to meet the person who they are dealing with face-to-face. This is because there are many things that a person can see from another’s face that you cannot see in an email. It also helps them to size up their partners before they can make any commitment. Another negative effect of technology is that it reduces the amount of time spent communicating in real life. According to the office of National Statistics of the UK government, people of the adult age in the United Kingdom spend over 42 days a year at their computers browsing the internet. This is a huge amount of time spent considering the amount of time that is dedicated to free time which is spent on the Internet and also keeping in mind that email and Facebook are currently the most done activities on the Internet. Technology has also been thought to make people lazy. As everything is more easily accessible and available on the internet even tasks that can be considered to be simple such as grocery shopping, people are becoming more comfortable in their homes and there is an increasing laziness where people don’t feel the need to leave their houses for any reason since they can do whatever they need on the internet or using various other forms of technology. This has led to certain other issues such as the increasing obesity of individuals as well as development of other conditions such as diabetes, sleep apnea, high cholesterol and social discrimination such as that which is seen in nerds and geeks. In families, parents are complaining that their children are spending an awful lot of time using various technology devices rather than the time spent bonding as a family. You may find that many children bring their laptops, mobile phones or other hand held devices to the most awkward of places such as the dining table or to family meetings and outings. These various technological devices negatively impact the family moment and increase the disconnect between the children and their parents. In the case of relationships, technology has greatly impacted the various activities that were popular with dating such as the man picking up the lady to go to dinner in a tuxedo or suit with the woman spotting a to-die-for dinner dress or handwritten love letter which are sent via snail mail which would brighten up the day for the one to who it was sent. These activities have been replaced by the incorporate of technology in relationships. For example, you may find that people have e-dates via various services such as Skype or other video and audio chatting services or instead of sending handwritten letters, there are e-cards and emails which do the exactly same thing though in a different way and with a quite different outcome. Saying “I love you” on Facebook isn’t the same as saying the same words face-to-face. Everyone can agree to this. It doesn’t feel the same when you hear the words said by your lover and you read them in a text message or via Facebook. This is one of the negative impacts of technology since technology cuts out the otherwise sweet moments that would have been created by face-to-face conversations. Role of technology in decline in critical thinking and analysis Several research studies that have been conducted have revealed that technology has led to a decline in the critical analysis and critical thinking of individuals. Although the visual skills of individuals have developed as a result of technology, there is a decline in the critical thinking and analysis. This is one of the ways in which technology has impacted the field of education including on research and development. Reading for pleasure was considered to be one of the major developers of critical thinking and analysis and this has greatly reduced with learners turning to the web more for entertainment than reading . This is one of the reasons that lead to censorship or blocking of certain websites such as Facebook in schools and other educational institutions. Rebuttal Technology has played a huge role in our current world that is different from that described in early literature. Both negative and positive effects have been felt as a result of the development of modern technology. Technology has helped to advance education and learning by providing endless resources which are used by students and researchers all over the world to gain more knowledge and insight about their various fields of learning. Technology has also helped greatly in the development of personal relationships and keeping in contact with people even though the normal course of changes in life may take people to different directions thus taking them away from each other. Some of the negative effects come majorly from the progress of personal relationships where it was seen that technology has somewhat presented some complication to personal relationships and others are the effects that technology has had in the education sector and generally in our daily lives. However, technology has had more positive effects than negatives. Therefore, technology has helped to make our lives better more than the negative effects that have been felt as a result of technology. Conclusion With the advent of various forms of technology, computers and later the Internet, there have no doubt been revolutionary creations and indeed changes to the world as we may have known it. Both of these inventions or innovations have caused the advancement of the society socially, intellectually and economically. Everywhere you look at home, in schools or the office, you're bound to see or use something related to the internet, be it a funny email, a work related assignment or to accomplish a task through research or communication. Whether the internet is a boon or it is unhealthy, the jury is still out on that. It is a valid question. Technology has presented both negative and positive effects to our lives. However, technology has had more positive effects than negatives. Therefore, technology has helped to make our lives better more than the negative effects that have been felt as a result of technology. References Arnett, J. (2000). Emerging adulthood: A theory of development from the late teens through the Twenties. American Psychologist, 55(1), 469-480. Bargh, J. A., McKenna, K. Y. A., & Fitzsimons, G. M. (2002). Can You See the Real Me? Activation and Expression of the “True Self” on the Internet. Journal of Social Issues, 58(1), 33-48. doi: 10.1111/1540-4560.00247 Barker, D. I., Terry, C. D., Melissa, B., & Pinard, K. T. (2009). Internet Research Illustrated. Florence, KY: Cengage Learning. Baym, N. K., Zhang, Y. B., & Lin, M.-C. (2004). Social Interactions Across Media. New Media & Society, 6(3), 299-318. doi: 10.1177/1461444804041438 Greiffenstern, S. (2010). The Influence of Computers, the Internet and Computer-Mediated Communication on Everyday English. Berlin: Logos Verlag. Helliwell, J. F., & Putnam, R. D. (2004). The social context of well-being. The Royal Society, Aug(2004), 1435-1446. Lampe, C., Ellison, N., & Steinfield, C. (2006). A face(book) in the crowd: social Searching vs. social browsing. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 2006 20th anniversary conference on Computer supported cooperative work, Banff, Alberta, Canada. Orlikowski, W. J. (1992). The Duality of Technology: Rethinking the Concept of Technology in Organizations. Organization Science, 3(3), 398-427. University of California. (2009). Is Technology Producing A Decline In Critical Thinking And Analysis? Los Angeles, California: University of California. Wall, D. (2001). Crime and the Internet. London: Routledge.  Read More

Through starting huge internet companies such as Facebook, Google, Yahoo, LinkedIn and others, many have turned to instant millionaires and even billionaires from the virtual resources offered by the internet. The internet is indeed remarkable but we must not forget that new technologies contradict the culture that they emerge in, thus there are bound to be several problems associated with it. “Those who go online do decide to begin signing on risk becoming addicted to the internet” . Other major problems include cyber-crimes such as website spoofing, frauds and other spam mail.

Many a times we have seen or heard the emails that entice us by claiming that we have won millions or even billions of dollars in inheritance and upon replying to the emails, we are added to spam lists and at the same time try to swindle our money. We have also seen and heard of the EBay frauds where after sending the seller the buy price, we never hear from them. Of course we cannot forget the scores of inappropriate adult content that is getting its way to teens and other youth despite how hard their parents try to fight through parental control and other measures of censorship.

These are just representations of the internet’s negative influence. A response to this is that the society is embracing the profound benefits of the technology and information provided by the internet and is searching ardently for ways to alleviate or eliminate the problems associated with it. Examples are the various antispyware, antimalware, antivirus software that provide internet protection that we see on sale these days. We can also use this understanding of the impact of modern technology on personal relationships within organizations to make a general understanding of how technology has impacted life in the general world.

In today’s world, where information moves almost beyond what can reasonably be comprehended, keeping up to date with all that is going on in world and current events, appointments, one’s social calendar and social life, it has become essential for many individuals to utilize advanced forms of technology just to keep up . The early 21st century saw the beginnings of the internet which ushered in a new modality of information sharing. The Internet, however, has its roots in public forums rather than industry or business focused.

The vitality of this medium is contingent upon a continuous stream of individual users who regularly and repeatedly log in, point, click, comment, upload, share, tag, and create content within their individualized internet portals. Since its inception, social media has continued to evolve to meet the needs and desires of its current users while also focusing on continuously attracting new users. College student development is contingent upon a group of socio-cultural, cognitive, and psychological tenets that have a close relationship to an the growth experiences of an individual through his or her collegiate experiences .

It has been posited that social networking sites will most likely have a significant influence on a student’s growth particularly in the psycho-social arena; however, some argue that there may be influence and implications in other areas including psychological and cognitive areas. Many argue that because of the use of the internet and other advanced technologies, many have lost the ability to communicate in more traditional ways: face-to-face, letter writing, telephone calls, and so on.

Moreover, internet users are utilizing the internet and other social media forums to make interpersonal relationships and even develop romantic relationships via virtual sites. One of the primary demographics of internet users is college students that have effectively served to incorporate social media into their traditional college lives . In many ways, students live both in the land-based or physical world as well as in the virtual world; leading what some considers parallel lives. posit that social networking sites may offer an avenue for the development of greater social capital which may serve to further reinforce students’ likelihood of integrating Facebook and other social media sites into their regular routines.

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