Technology On Society Essay Research Paper The

Technology On Society Essay, Research Paper The Recent Negative Effect of Technology on Society Roy Kantrowitz Mr. Ingram English 101/105 Report Ever since the Industrial revolution, technology has been changing at a fast pace. People are always wanting a better lifestyle therefore there is always something new arising so humans can cope with their physical environment. One of the most important breakthroughs for technology was the agricultural system. The agricultural system was the basis for the technology of the future. The agricultural system brought on the need for transportation, workers and even, battles over land. The need for transportation brought vehicles into the market. The need for employees brought mechanical robots into society. Battles over land brought on

the need for sophisticated weapons. The agricultural system brought on a revolution. The invention of the television can bring media and other forms of entertainment into your house with video and audio combined. Before 1950, newspapers and radio were the only ways to bring media or entertainment into the house. Mass production and other job opportunities brought many people from the suburbs and farms into the city. We can now have forms of electricity directed into our houses for heating and light. Humans are more reliant on technology then ever before. All of these technological advances sound great, however, there is a negative effect to all this technology. Technology can serve to actually harm humans rather then help them. Competition between companies or even cities can

sometimes make lives for humans even worse. Take for example when a city builds better and more roads to attract tourists. This actually creates more traffic, not less. Technology also changes our sense of common purpose. New inventions such as the personal computer and machines can change our lifestyles. Even things we take for granted such as the automobile have negative effects on technology. The oil needed for a car to run needs to be imported and sometimes accidents such as the Exxon Valdez incident spills many gallons of oil into the ocean. All of these examples show how technology has negative effects on society. First, competition can lead to a negative effect of technology. When a company in the U.S. produces shoes and a company in Great Britain produces shoes as well,

they must fight for their market share. Lets say the company in Great Britain purchases more machines that will reduce the amount of workers needed and improve output, then they can reduce the price of their product. If the company in New York doesn’t follow in their footsteps then they could be forced out of business. In this case the company is forced into buying the machines just so they can stay in business. This has a negative effect on the employees who will be replaced by the new machines. When a city wants to attract tourists by building better roads to lessen traffic there is a mistake because this will only create more traffic since there will be more people wanting to travel these roads. McManus says the inability to see the future is responsible for the negative

effects of new technologies. He also states better roads cause more traffic congestion, not less. By creating better roads, more people will want to travel these roads (A-1). If New York City built a new sophisticated highway to attract more tourists then more New Yorkers will want to travel these roads as well. Many New Yorkers who previously used mass transit to travel to work will now want to use a car to travel to work. In effect there will be more traffic and more pollution. There will be other side effects as well. Real estate values of areas near the highway could go down. Competition can help a community in one aspect however it can hurt it as well. Competition can directly stimulate the economy, however, long term effects such as pollution and the loss of jobs could