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What are the effects of modern technology on society
Effect of technology on modern society
Effect of technology on modern society
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In 1893 a world fair was held in Chicago Illinois to celebrate the 4thcentenniel of Columbus discovering the Americas. The exposition displayed grand buildings with beautiful architecture, hundreds of exhibits ranging from exotic tribes of Africa, to new inventions, expertly constructed landscape, and astounding attractions such as the first Ferris wheel. The fair lasted for six months and had over 27 million visitors, including ¼ of the American population.
Aside from the pulchritude of the fair, it also displayed multiple elements of society at that time. The fair was a nexus of the current and future products of industrialization. The fair introduced many people to what the future of society would be like. The fair displayed the new world
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of business and commercial production, the future world of how electricity would function in society, and new human behavior and violence. The 1893 Columbian exposition introduced people to the new and upcoming world of business and commercial product. The fair showcased mass produced foods and drinks e.g. Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer, Juicy Fruit Gum, and Shredded Wheat Cereal. People also had the opportunity to experience new forms of the soon-to-be modern entertainment industry like the Ferris wheel. ( The Devil in the White City p 247) In addition to this, the fair also served as an example of modern commercial development and promotion. A highly significant and life-changing element of the industrial revolution was the mass production of food. Before the industrial revolution, people either had to go to individualized stores or produce their own food. It was usually the women’s responsibility to make sure that their family had food; therefore, a considerable portion of their lives was spent, tending to animals and growing vegetables etc. This changed when food items began to be mass produced and manufactured. Middle class Women could buy food from stores instead of laboring, which dramatically reduced their duties. With the newfound leisure time that people had, a whole new world of business was opening up to accommodate. The fair captured and helped develop one of the most successful forms of this rising industry: Amusement rides. The Ferris wheel alone attracted thousands of people, in one week it had over 61,000 people ride it (The Devil in the White City 287). This went on to become one of the most iconic amusement park rides. The desire to be entertained is what attracted so many people to the fair. The only reason people knew of the fair however, was because of the promotion and advertisement of the fair. Industrialization led to the development of thousands of new products, events, and forms of entertainment. In order to ensure a product’s success, there needed to be mass advertising. What the fair also displayed about new business was how rapid development at the time was. The fair took three years to build; in that time 690 acres were environmentally developed and around 200 buildings were constructed(http://www.wbez.org/series/curious-city/your-ticket-white-city-108994) (http://www.history.com/news/7-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-1893-chicago-worlds-fair) . Thousands of workers were hired and fired and strikes were held in protest of the poor wages and rushed work setting (Devil in The White City pg 218) . This reflects the overall work environment of the country at that time: fast work, low wages, and labor revolutions. Electricity is considered to be one of the major elements in the second industrial revolution http://www.skwirk.com/p-c_s-14_u-424_t-1100_c-4258/the-second-industrial-revolution/nsw/history/the-industrial-revolution/the-impact-of-the-industrial-revolution. The United States began to transition into the second industrial revolution at the end of the 19th century. At the Columbia Exposition, Westinghouse secured the contract over Edison for lighting the fair, but lights weren’t the only thing electricity transformed; it transformed all elements of society including transportation, communication, and manufacturing (http://haygenealogy.com/hay/1893fair/1893fair.html). The Columbian Exposition design included thousands and thousands of light-bulbs illuminating the fair at night. At this time, Edison, with General Electric and Tesla with Westinghouse were still debating direct current vs. alternating current. The fair required a provider of electricity, therefore, Edison and Tesla both put in bids for the contract. Tesla won the bid for the fair with an offer of 399,000 while Edison’s offer was around 550,000. This would be one of the many events that helped alternating current become the U.S electrical current standard rather than direct. https://historyrat.wordpress.com/2013/01/13/lighting-the-1893-worlds-fair-the-race-to-light-the-world/ Electricity began to completely transform society through its use in technology.
New inventions in communication such as the telephone invented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876 and soon after radio communication made long distance communication quicker and easier than using a telegraph http://www.skwirk.com/p-c_s-14_u-424_t-1100_c-4258/the-second-industrial-revolution/nsw/history/the-industrial-revolution/the-impact-of-the-industrial-revolution. Transportation was influenced by the invention of electric traction and the electric motor which were used in streetcars and subway systems. Manufacturing was also influenced by electricity; it allowed production to rely on artificially generated power rather than the force of human strength or steam power which greatly increased work productivity http://teachinghistory.org/history-content/ask-a-historian/24470.
Aside from the world of business and technology that the industrial revolution brought, a new world of human behavior and crime developed. Violent murders committed by people like Jack the Ripper and H.H Holmes started to occur. The H.H Holmes murders occurred at the same time as the Columbian exposition. This was another aspect of future society that the exposition introduced to people to. This transition was brought about by poverty, and the unsanitary crowded conditions that people were forced to live in http://www.txstate.edu/gii/projects/jack-the-ripper.html
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. In 1888 a series of grotesque murders occurred in the White Chapel district of London. Although the perpetrator of the crimes was never caught, they were assigned to one person due to a connection that the crimes had: the victims were all left in obscene and morbidly artistic states http://www.jack-the-ripper.org/. The news coverage of this event spread around the world and people were horrified, events like this had never been heard of before outside of fiction http://www.casebook.org/dissertations/rippercussions.html. However, just five years later, another prolific murderer rose to fame in the United States for the unusual callousness and macabre aspects of the case. H.H Holmes was an alias used by Herman Webster Mudgett, a person convicted with the murders of a family of five; however, it is estimated that Holmes killed between 20 and 100 people. H.H. Holmes thrived off the Columbian Exposition where the vast amount of people seeking to experience the “White City” created the perfect confusion and distraction to commit his numerous murders. Asides from a favorable environment, Holmes also had a deceiving nature which allowed him to thoroughly persuade many people into having utmost confidence in his character. As soon as he would win someone over, he would either play them as a pawn to better his own position or he would find a way to discretely murder them (http://harpers.org/archive/1943/12/the-master-of-the-murder-castle/ ). Holmes’ murders typically took place within his custom-built home, a building which he had specifically designed for his murderous actions. Some elements within the building were: an office which had a sound proof gas chamber, a furnace capable of fitting a body within the basement, and multiple hotel rooms which housed his unsuspecting victims. This sort of thought-out well designed intention of serial killing was similar to Jack the Ripper in that it had never existed outside of fiction, and was due to the rising pressure of industrialization. The Devil in the White City pg. 12 Industrialization was the main contributor of the advancing society; however, it also led to poverty and crime. Factories underpaid most workers because there were no laws regulating how employers treated their employees. The conditions within cities were often very crowded. Factors like these often led to violence and crime; this is what is suspected provoked Jack the Ripper. The White Chapel District where he performed his murders was crowded and known for its low ended and dangerous condition http://www.jack-the-ripper.org/ . H. H. Holmes committed his murders for a different reason, although industrialization worked heavily to his advantage. Industrialization in Chicago created an environment rich with opportunity for profit, wealth and success.
A significant amount of people were in Chicago looking to take advantage of what it had to offer. Holmes used this lust people had for opportunity to exploit and attract his victims. His offerings of jobs, rooms, wealth, marriage and a multitude of other things combined with the opportunity Chicago had, composed an irresistible offering to women (The devil in the White City pg 162). They could not justify reasons to refuse moving into his building. From here Holmes treated women well and seduced them into positions where he could easily murder
them. The fair was a nexus of future society. It displayed what the rapidly developing world of industrialization was molding into: new business and commercial development, the technological advancement and widespread use of electricity amidst the alternating and direct current debate, and the stress of industrialization on people that led to crime and violence. This nexus displayed the world of the future. This can be related to what people are experiencing today. We are in the midst of another nexus, another gathering of mass change to the world. Right now, the world is transitioning into a position where we can instantly obtain any object. Three-dimensional printers can print any object’s form with a multitude of materials. These objects are predicted to completely revolutionize industry. With a three-dimensional printer, any person will be able to pick an object they want, print the pieces for it, then assemble them into their desired product. This will eliminate the need of manufacturing for thousands of products and potentially close thousands of companies that produce printable or easily assembled products. Being in the midst of this change is exactly what being at the fair was like. The fair showed the nexus of industrialization, while modern people are experiencing the nexus of technology developing around them. Grand societal change was occurring that affected all areas of the general populous. The fair foreshadowed the future of society: the product of industrialization.
...the people of the US a glimpse of alien cultures that many of them had never heard of, much less seen and learned about. In a way, the fair was a cultural awakening for most of the people of the United States. Suddenly, people from Missouri could tell their friends and families that they had seen Camels, or men from Japan. 27 million people went to see the fair, the vast majority of them Americans. That was a little less than half of the population of the country at this time. That many people seeing cultures and people that many had never heard of would have caused a dramatic effect, transforming the people of this country into a more cultured, worldly people.
...mes’ lifestyle. Holmes, throughout his life was a criminal. Holmes desire to murder people was believed to come from from his desensitized feeling about dead bodies. This was due to his medical career. As mentioned earlier, when Holmes was in medical school, he had many dealings with cadavers and was very familiar with them. Later, when he began killing he did not look at the bodies as human beings, but as material or later, cash money. This relationship between crime and deviance is mainly why I choose this book. I feel that H. H. Holmes, although Holmes was a strange and demented man, was very successful. This success questions what makes people successful: is it your status, education, or was it his determination?
In the colonization period, the urge to conquer foreign territories was strong, and many lands in the Western Hemisphere were conquered. With the colonization of these areas, a mercantilist relationship was formed between the conquered civilization and the maternal country. A major part of this was the restriction of exportation of native resources only to the mother country as well as the banning of trading with colonies of other countries. In turn, there was an increasing in the number of smuggling activities during the time. According to a British sailor named William Taggart in 1760, the illegal smuggling of goods into these areas had a positive impact because it brought prosperity to the people in Monte Christi, as there were only one hundred poor families. Likewise, Dominica governor John Orde praised the trading because it created prices much lower than with its maternal country. However, British admiral David Tyrell, Roger Elletson, Dominica governor John Orde, and a 1790 Bahaman newspaper report all had similar views on the harmful effects and corruptness present in smuggling. Despite this, physician George Lipscomb and British Lieutenant Governor Thomas Bruce had neutral opinions on the matter, and only stated what they witnessed in the process.
...oods in the market place. The market increased vastly, becoming more efficient with cheaper transportation and economic specialization. Industrialization impacted the meaning of work and changed the ways of time management. Urbanization mainly evolved in the northeastern states, which help the states to become more into urban cities showing and improving on communication and industrialization. Though this was great for the Americans it did affect the Native Americans and African slaves in a negative light. Even though it had ups and downs from different point of views the market revolution changed and improved how our economy is today.
“When people arrived in the morning on the 17th there was a display of horses, cattle and farm products” (Drury 807). “The first Montgomery County Agricultural Fair was held in Dayton at Swaynie’s Hotel on East First Street October 17th and 18th, 1839” (Drury 807). 1853, the state fair was held on Washington Street, the same year the county fair was held there (Drury 807) then in 1874, “the Southern Ohio Fair Association began having fairs on the Montgomery County Fairgrounds for fifteen years” (Drury 808). This set the stepping stone for many fairs in the years in counting. When individuals see the Montgomery County Fairgrounds today, it is seen as just being a place where random fairs or talent shows are held at. Not knowing its history, one could be right. Much has changed on the Montgomery County Fairgrounds; from its architecture to the people that now visit it.
The "International Exhibition of Arts, Manufactures, and Products of the Soil and Mine, in the city of Philadelphia" was opened on the 10th day of May in the year 1876. As it was more commonly known, the "Centennial Exposition" was America's first successful World's Fair. The fair celebrated the one hundred year anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and America's start as a sovereign nation. It was at the Centennial Fair that Americans were given a chance to display their knowledge and power in the growing industrialized world.
The World’s Columbian Exposition, also known as the Chicago World’s Fair, was an event celebrating American invention and innovation on the 400th anniversary of Columbus’s discovery of America. The fair was open for six months and was visited by an estimated 27.5 million people. The Fair was a major influence on the spirt invention associated with the Gilded Age, but it was also influenced by the spirit of the time.
Of course, there are the classic reasons for going to the Fair: the dozens of rides and attractions along the mile-long midway; the incredible variety of food and drink available; the many hands-on livestock exhibits; the opportunity to make hundreds of little goldfish paranoid by hurling plastic projectiles into their bowls; and, of course, the wide variety of special events. If you've been to the Fair before and are reading this article anyway, you may as well keep reading to see what's new.
Novelties and inventions such as Shredded Wheat, Cracker Jack, and incandescent light bulbs were introduced while renowned individuals like Buffalo Bill, Jane Addams, and Archduke Francis Ferdinand made appearances. However, ticket sales did not really explode until the completion of the first Ferris Wheel by George Ferris. Because of this marvel, the fair drew in a record of 751,026 people in a single day despite impending national panic. But with the beauty of the fair came a burst of vice and crime, including the murders of at least five young women by Holmes in his “murder castle.” As much as Chicago was a city of opportunity, it was easy among the excited crowds and marvelous exhibits to vanish and never be heard from
The Industrial Revolution was a time of great change and increased efficiency. No more would be goods be produced by sole means of farming and agriculture, but now by the use of machinery and factories. Technology was beginning to increase along with the food supply as well as the population. However, this increase in population would greatly impact the social aspect of that time. Urbanization was becoming much more widespread. Cities were becoming overwhelmingly crowded and there was an increase in disease as well as harsh child labor. Although child labor would be reduced somewhat due to unions, the Industrial Revolution still contained both it’s positive and negative results.
The Chicago World’s Fair (Columbian Exposition) was meant to celebrate the four-hundredth anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s voyage to the new world. This also brought America Columbus Day which we still celebrate today. The fair started May 1st, 1893, which is a year after they originally planned to have the fair start. It went on for six months and closed on October 30th, 1893. It was held in Jackson Park and the Midway Plaisance and occupied about six hundred and thirty acres. The
In conclusion, the industrial revolution brought many changes to Britain. The changes included the textile industry, the steam powered engines, which helped create steam-powered locomotives and steam boats. Because of this major improvement in the industrial revolution railroads began to sprout and was a more efficient way to transport goods and people across Britain. The Industrial Revolution no doubt brought rapid changes to people’s lives in Britain.
Holmes committed against society were horrific in nature, and unheard of for the time (H.H. Holmes, 2004). America became fascinated with his methods of madness so much that has become mainstream with the release of “The Devil in the White City” by Erik Larson that chronicles H.H. Holmes during the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893 (H.H. Holmes Biography, 2015). Though his motives and methods may have been extraordinary and excessive for the time, criminal profilers have learned to understand Holmes’ motives and methods to see inside mind of a serial killer, no matter what
Holmes also preyed on women in his lifetime, in fact, the majority of his victims were young women. He gained so much power over these women, because he somehow managed to gain their trust. He used his good looks and charm to lure the women to him. He used the fact that most of the women were visiting the city alone as an opportunity to take advantage of them. In addition to the women just being
In conclusion, the Industrial Revolution changed the lives and economies of many countries. Even though the factory conditions were poor and women and men were still unequal the rise of industry was needed. More people were able to afford certain goods and urbanization increased. The rise of the working and middle class also helped shape many economies. Industrialization was a significant factor that helped lead society into the modern era.