The Paradox of Progress

We live in an era of technology, where people are a video-conference away and the entire world is at the touch of our fingertips. Smartphones, tablets and even Google glasses have reshaped everything from communication to even our attention span. The modern western society has made extraordinary strides in transportation, energy, communication, agriculture and medicine yet we have taken so many impressive feats for granted. There is no doubt that as a civilization we must progress forward but the in the efforts we must not forget where we have come from. According to psychologist despite our technological progress, personal difficulties and social problems seem more prevalent and more conspicuous than ever before. The technological advances of the past century, impressive thought they may be, have not led to perceptible improvement in our collective health and happiness. In fact, many social critics argue that the quality of our lives and our sense of personal fulfillment have declined rather than increase. This is known as the paradox of progress according to the ninth edition of Psychology Applied to Modern Life.

Modern technology has provided us with numerous time-saving devices such as automobiles, cellphones, vacuum cleaners and dishwashers. In North American the middle class and upper classes are larger than ever before, most of them taking for granted things that were once considered luxuries, such as colored televisions and air conditioning. People spend vast amounts of money on expensive things that at one point either did not exist or were well beyond our necessity. Americas past time has changed from baseball to an uncontrollable shopping driven culture. In recent decades the range of life choices available to people ...

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...s. Unfortunately, these modern advances are causing more harm than good as they negatively impact the world around us.

The good old days appear to have been a thing of the past the very few of us remember or may have not even known. We have become the children of technology searching for technological answer for our behavioral problems. Technological progress, personal difficulties and social problems have become more common and more apparent than ever before. It is an endless struggle that has been going on since the beginning of our existence. As a civilization we must move forward otherwise we are moving backwards. Unfortunately we are depleting some things that we may not even be aware of until it is too late. Progress is good, sacrifice is necessary but too what extent is it justifiable, especially when it is affecting our overall well-being and happiness.