Technology and Lifestyle

What is a society comprised of? A society involves number of people in a social space or network held together by the sense of understanding and obligation towards the betterment of the community and promotes a sense of togetherness within the members.

What is technology? We can find various definitions to derive the actual meaning of technology, but the one which applies mostly to our context are “it’s the process of applying established knowledge to meet identified market and social needs”.

Technology sources are the tools which have been developed over time to aid us in our lifestyles and increase our comfort levels and efficiency. Technology sources can be said to have been in our lives since time immemorial. Be it electricity, telephones, medicinal discoveries, transportation etc., everything has added to our comfort and performance.

Since the onset of different discoveries and inventions, different technology sources have come to the forefront and have known to affect the lifestyle of humans. The progress in technology is responsible for the advancements in the fields of manufacturing, transportation, medicine etc. For example, with the usage of electricity, life became easier and improved the efficiency of people all around the world. Starting from the above example of electricity to the latest trend of Internet which is invading all aspects of our lives, technology in all forms is percolating into our community whether we like it or not. Over and above all this, technology plays a very important role in international trade and commerce and bringing in the globalization of trade.

In other words, the most important contribution of technology to society is making the lives of common people much easier and helping them achieve what was previously not possible.

Also, the usage of technology has added a new dimension to the work related community. Now with the use of Internet, pagers, mobile phones, the working member of the family can be attend to the office work while at the same time providing due attention to his/her family.

On the other hand this huge development in technology has affected our lifestyles in a negative sense also. The tremendous development in technology has affected the lifestyle of people in society. It will be wrong to say that the progress in technology is for the betterment of the society since it has had bad implications also on people. It is also affecting work, family, and the economy, introducing new forms of tension and distraction, and posing new threats to the cohesion of our physical communities. However, the good and bad effects of technology depend completely on the amount of exposure people get to the technology source and the use they derive from the same.

Firstly, the new technology changes cultural values by spreading ideas, values, behavior patterns within a society .The new technology sources, such as Internet, and multimedia have serious effects on children and adults. Most of the people in the age range of 10 to 45 suffer from laziness, obesity etc which can be considered as to be brought on by the new technology.

Secondly, technology negative effects include the rise of commercialization and consumerism resulting in more urbanization. We should now pause to think if such blatant commercialization of our space is not leading to the destruction of our freedom and space on our planet.

However, it is upon the people to decide whether the technology source being used by them affects them in a positive or negative sense. So, the technologies available to people greatly influence how their lives are as well as people have influence on technology’s development and how it is used. The difference in a person attitude towards technology is dependent on that person’s exposure to it rather that the notion she/he has of it.