Society Changes Technology Advancements

Technology and Social Change

There is an intrinsic relationship between technology and social change. The exact nature of that relationship is interesting, especially when one considers the myriad facets of it. On the one hand, technology impacts social change in a way that is arguably causal. On the other hand, social changes can help to engender technological advances, which in turn continue to affect additional social changes. In this way, the relationship between these two phenomena are somewhat cyclical, much like the proverbial chicken and the egg conundrum. Suffice to say that both technology and social change affect one another, and are interwoven in the sort of advancements they foster in today's world.

It is difficult to discuss today's society without considering the impact that the personal computer, cellular phones, and the internet have had upon it. Quite simply, the ramifications of these technological developments are that considerable. The commercialization of the personal computer predates the commercialization of these other two aspects of society. From that perspective, its impact is arguably the greatest because its ubiquity helped to inspire the sort of social changes that made these other two elements ubiquitous as well. Still, were one to actually categorize the impact that these three advancements have had on society, it is fair to say that they have helped to usher in an era of instant gratification and the dearth of patience that currently categorizes contemporary society.

All three of these technologies have created a culture in which people expect instant results. In the form of the personal computer, those results include calculations and word processing that is done with a degree of expedience that was not possible prior to this innovation. The internet helped to further this sentiment in that it provided instantaneous communications between parties (regardless of distance) via mediums such as email, chatrooms, and the like. More recently, cellular phones have combined the perceived advantages of each of the other two technologies. They provision instantaneous communication with text messages, video sharing, and phone calls. Additionally, they facilitate internet connections for the same emails and chatrooms that internet connections via personal computers do. Furthermore, these devices are readily equipped with any variety of applications, some of which can handle fairly complex computations and perform some surprising feats in a number of different realms of society.

It is perhaps easiest to describe the equilibrium model, digital divide, and cultural lag in relation to the internet, personal computer and cellular phones utilizing the functionalist perspective. This perspective is based on the notion that different aspects of society help to serve a specific function within that society (McClelland, 2000). For instance, personal computers provide a means of word processing and sharing information which is invaluable for allowing individuals to work (and to type this paper). The internet provides a vital communication function which is a means of transmitting information to parties without having to consider physical distance. The function of the digital divide is a means of allowing people to learn new technologies, which in turn further propagates those technologies and makes cell phones, the internet, and personal computers ubiquitous.

Conflict theory is the perspective that conflict helps to further advances in society (McClelland, 2000). When there are needs that are not met, for instance, with the personal computer in terms of communication, the internet was unveiled to provide that sort of communication. In turn, cellular phones were able to address some of the limitations of personal computers by operating as portable means of communication at all times. Cultural lag and the digital divide are impacted by conflict theory because they provide the means of form of tension -- when there are those that have technological needs greater than that which just the personal computer can sate-- that helped to produce the subsequent innovations in the internet and cellular phones. Thus, cultural lag and the digital divide are precursors to the form of stability that is inherent in the balancing of the equilibrium model.

Symbolic interactionism is the perspective about how people influence society and how society in turn influences them (McClelland, 2000). When applying this perspective to the equilibrium model, the digital divide, and cultural lag, these phenomena are ultimately reflections of society itself. This perspective dictates that social needs are responsible for the digital divide that forays into personal computing produced, and that the resulting cultural lag was necessary to actually reach a point of equilibrium. The subsequent advancements in technology from the personal computer to the internet and to cellular phones mirrored the effects of the digital divide and cultural lag, which are social phases that must occur in order to reach equilibrium.

Technology's influence on social epidemiology, health, and the environment is quite formidable, particularly when one considers the technologies responsible for cell phones, the internet, and personal computing. The combination of these technologies, which are realized in contemporary smart phones, certainly affect social epidemiology. There are numerous apps that have been created to help students in academia. On a less formal basis, people routinely do Google searches in conversation with one another and when researching social needs such as dining choices, furniture choices, or any other aspect of life as well. Many of these applications of the usages of these technologies transcend the realm of social epidemiology to include environmental concerns. In one respect, these technologies impact the immediate environment of people because they can be used to provide global positioning systems for directions and to change one's surroundings when walking or traveling by vehicles. In other instances, these technologies can actually provision environmental information from a macrocosm perspective, and detail various points of information about the weather, humidity, and germane forecasts. There are myriad ways in which the computing capabilities of modern smart phones, equipped with internet access, are used as wearable devices to monitor and issue health information, particularly for exercising purposes and cardiovascular needs.