Impact of Advanced Technology on Society – Essay
Advance technology or emerging technology has highly affected our society. The economic picture of India has completely changed with the changes in technology. It has favored the educated and the skilled only because of the fastest growing technical jobs software engineering tops the list.
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All engineering jobs are paying well; proving that highly skilled labour is what employers are interested for potential employees. There is clear evidence that the supply of workers in the unskilled labour categories already exceeds the demand for their services.
In view of these facts, it is difficult to say that these trends are good or bad for society. The danger of the information age is that while in the short run it may be cheaper to replace workers with technology, in the long run it is potentially self- destructive because there will not be enough purchasing power to grow the economy.
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A common feeling is that the trend from unskilled labour to technical, skilled labour is a good one! But, political action must be taken to ensure that this societal evolution is beneficial to all.
Our own prosperity has moved us into a technical world that requires skilled labour. The natural answer to this is that the education policy must keep pace with the demands of the highly technical job market.
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The advance of mass communication is natural in a technologically advanced society. In our country’s short history, we have seen the development of the printing press, the radio, the television, and now the internet; all of these, able to reach millions of people.
Equally natural, is the poisoning and corruption of this media, to benefit a few. From the 1950’s until today, television has been the preferred media. Because it captures the minds of people, it is the preferred method of persuasion by political figures, multinational corporate advertising. Newspapers and radio experienced this same history, but are now somewhat obsolete in the science of changing public opinion.
Though television cannot become completely obsolete within the next 20 years, yet the internet would be increasingly used by the same political figures, multinational corporations for the same purposes.
At this time, in the internet’s young history, it is largely unregulated, and can be changed by any person with a computer and a modem; no license required, and no need for millions of dollars of equipment.
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But, in reviewing our history, we find that newspaper, radio and television were once unregulated too. It is easy to see why government has such an interest in regulating the internet these days.
Though public opinion supports regulating obscene material on the internet, it is just the first step in total regulation, as experienced by every other popular mass media in our history. This is why it is imperative to educate people about the Internet, and make it be known that any regulation of it is destructive to us, not constructive!
In light of the history of mass communication, there is nothing we can do to protect any media from the sound byte or any other form of commercial poisoning. But, our country’s public opinion doesn’t have to fall into a nose-dive of lies and corruption, because of it!
Television doesn’t have to be a weapon against us. It should be used to present our opinions to conform to people who care about their own prosperity, not ours. With the power of a critical thinking education, we can stop being motivated by the sound byte and, instead we can laugh at it as a cheap attempt to persuade us.
In conclusion, it can be said that the advancement of technology is a good trend for our society; however, it must be in conjunction with advance in education so that society is able to master and understand. The most important fact is that use of technology can lead to both progress and destruction if not used prudently.