Technology and Society Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Technology and Society - Essay Example The issue at hand is not the impact that the technology would have on the culture of a society that has yet to reach the evolution level of societies in the developed world, but rather the societies in the least developed world. Information technology is given high importance in the article, with the inference that the modern societies are information driven. This is true of the developed world. However, it becomes diminished in value in the least developed countries, where the culture of the society has not evolved to be in a position to accept a high technology. For instance, in such societies, being literate in terms of the developed world may be a luxury very few can afford, and so the vast majority of the society remains illiterate. For a high technology like the Internet to diffuse and be absorbed in this society would be nigh impossible , because of the complexity involved in the use of the technology. Yes, there is mention complexity of the technological product acting as a b arrier to diffusion in a society, but the complexity suggested there is much higher than the simple ability to read and write. Yet, another aspect missed out in relevance to this issue is that there should be the presence of supportive technologies for a new technology to diffuse in a society. For a technology like the Internet to diffuse in the society, there should be enough diffusion of the supportive telecommunication technologies. The again this article has a greater bearing on markets and diffusion and adoption of technologies into these markets, and the developed world is where the large markets exists, and hence the tailoring of the article to the developed world (1). Do you agree with the concepts suggested in the Nye and Ceruzzi readings? Is technology 'fixing' or is it 'harming'? Is this something we can measure? Why or why not? Technology is both fixing and harming. Looking at the development of the spread of information and technology, the biggest barrier to this was th e inability of one computer to communicate with another and thus impeding the flow of information. A technology fix occurred in the development of the Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW). The barrier of flow of information from one computer to another just vanished. The technological fix of the Internet and the World Wide Web demonstrated the potential of their being a medium through which a host of various kinds of activities ranging from information activity sites to commercial activity sites, and social interaction sites and soon the technological fix fell in place like search engines for information, e-commerce sites for commercial activity, and yahoo mail, hotmail, etc., as social ad business activity sites. So technology is fixing providing a host of benefits, but along with it comes the price in the form of the harm it can cause. The activities of hackers and pornography sites may be arguably discounted as the actions with a criminal bend of mind misusing the technology tow ards their objectives. Yet, the harm transcends this with the potential of reducing the very quality of the society we live in. Being students it is easy to see how the technology fixes of the Internet a

Women's Emancipation in The Awakening Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Women's Emancipation in The Awakening - Essay Example Edna had a strong and passionate spirit but this died down with her marriage to her husband, Leonce. When she became Mrs. Pontiellier, she took it upon herself to live a life of responsibility, leaving who she was before they got married. Her marriage to Leonce was not perfect. In fact, there were times when she cries at night confused on the reason she was crying (Chap.3, par.10.). But during that night, she felt even more oppressed, even to the point of feeling anguish about her situation. Her emotions during that specific night during their summer vacation indicated that, although she realizes there was something wrong with how she felt, she strived to keep it to herself. Notice that she didn’t mention anything to her husband about how she felt during night the next morning. It was as if nothing was wrong. This was a typical scene for women of the 1800s. Chopin described Edna to be a slave of the social expectations of marriage and motherhood. Edna’s individuality wa s cast aside to become what is to be expected of a woman in marriage, a supportive wife and doting mother. But Edna was not entirely such a person. She acted only as if she was that person because she was expected to do so. Her husband even had to persuade her to check their son during the night he believed the young one had a fever (Chap.3, par. 6). Chopin was not alone in her belief how married women acted and felt. Ibsen shared this idea as seen in â€Å"The Doll House.† In this story, Nora led a difficult life because of the social expectation that her husband is supposed to be the dominant figure in their family. She also had the same strong spirit that Edna exhibited in â€Å"The Awakening.† But the same with Edna, Nora was unable to show how strong she is because of the bounds of marriage. Marriage is not a bad thing. Most, if not all, women envision themselves to become married and have a family. What turns this around are the social expectations linked to marr iage. One of the heaviest things that society has linked to marriage is the expectation that it is the husband that is supposed to lead and to provide for the family. Although social expectations increased the confidence and the responsibility of men, it decreased women’s participation in the family. Yes, it is the wife who becomes the mother and the housekeeper of the family. Yes, her role in the family has a great bearing in maintaining the family’s connection with each other. But with this role, the woman releases her connection with herself, as that with Edna and Nora. She lets go of her individuality, of who she is, when she becomes a wife and a mother. Edna and Nora followed the demands of the society to become perfect partners, even if it meant they hide their true feelings and beliefs on what their husbands were doing. When women become wives, they are expected to keep the family intact. And so, when Edna and Nora acted upon their own desires and wants, the ima ge of their families were jeopardized. The society expects that families should always be whole and when something bad happens, it is blamed on the women although it is not entirely their fault. This is not to justify the actions of both female characters. This is to show that because of the strings tied to them through marriage and social expectations, these female characters were repressed of their own emotions and individual personalities. When Edna and Nora realized that their marriage was actually killing who they were, they decided to let go of their marriage not to become free of the obligations of family life but to become free from the repressing environment that kills their own desires to take care of the family. They did not leave their families just because they want to become single