S Outperformance Of Technology: It's Trends In Society

Within the last ten years, our world has arguably changed more than in any other decade in history. One of the main drivers of that change is technology; it is rapidly changing with it the structure of our society. Technology affects every individual, whether directly or indirectly. Many people fail to take the time to notice and analyze the recent trends in society, doing so is important not only to ponder upon the past, but also to anticipate the future and prepare for the lifestyles that we will soon have to deal with. However, looking at the current and past trends in society, the future looks quite bleak. Even though technology provides vast advances in many fields, society has reached a point of no return, where moral values have eroded and the desire for human contact is all but lost. Mazarr (1999) believes that in today's society, there is "a stark amorality as individuals and groups seek selfish rewards unbalanced by a consideration for the health of the society as a whole or of its less fortunate members". Technology’s outperformance of ethics and morals is not only extremely dangerous, but also very realistic scenario as society stands to lose any type of accountability that it previously had.

Furthermore, one of the major areas of technology with an adverse effect on society is communications. Even though technology brings people form different continents together with the aid of programs like Skype, WhatsApp, …etc., it hinders personal interactions between individuals standing in front of each other. Cairncross (1997) notes that due to the increase in devices like the cell phone, many people predict "a society of isolated people, stuck indoors, glued to a screen, losing the taste for real human contact and experien...

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... we the consumers of technology, which bear the full responsibility for the recent trends in society. In fact, regardless of technology, our world, our society, and people in general have been steadily loosening their hold on strong values and beliefs. Instead, morals and virtues have lost much of their meaning as people have become increasingly concerned about pleasing themselves rather than looking out for the well being of others. As tragic as it may sound, it may be well argued that greed itself is the driving force in today's society. The disappearance of morals has left people solely interested in themselves. Nevertheless, when each person begins to realize that they must change their morals, values, and overall perspective on life, and then begin to actually do so, then our problems in society can slowly begin to be fixed, piece-by-piece and person-by-person.