Technology's Influence on Modern Society

The Impact of Technology Today

Technology has a significant impact on productive activity, social aspects, and other repercussions.

Definition of Technology

Historically, philosophies and scientists dedicated to the natural world developed practices that were often isolated and disconnected from practical application. This changed with the emergence of modern science. Galileo was among the first to carry out his investigations hand-in-hand with technique. He built a telescope and employed it to study the stars and confirm his theory of the universe. Thereafter, the relationship between technology and science has been increasingly close.

For technique, this has been a profound transformation. We can define technology as the set of procedures and resources of great complexity and sophistication that characterize technique since the eighteenth century. The fundamental difference from prior art is the application of scientific theories and developments.

Technology has invaded almost every aspect of our existence.

Impact on Productive Activity

Advantages

• Efficacy and Productivity: The technological revolution had the most evident effect in increasing efficacy and productivity. Thanks to the introduction of special machinery and the reorganization of procedures and resources, it became possible to produce more, faster, and better.
• Humanization of Labor Conditions: The use of machinery and improvement of working methods permitted the alleviation of harder and heavier tasks. This constitutes an advance, as it requires the release from the most physically strenuous jobs and reserves more gratifying and creative ones.
• Free Time: The increase in productivity allows producing the same amount in less time and with the same resources, meaning people need to work less to produce the same output.

Disadvantages

• Overproduction and Consumerism: Producing more and better leads to making more than society needs at a given time. There is more supply of a product than interest in acquiring it.
• Dehumanization and Alienation: The introduction and utilization of machinery do not always lead to the humanization of work. When work is so repetitive and automatic that it becomes similar to the functioning of a machine, it loses its human dimension, and we speak of dehumanization or mechanization of work. This concept of alienation in mechanized work aligns with critiques, such as those by Karl Marx, regarding the dehumanizing effects of industrial labor.

Social Repercussions

Welfare as a Supreme Value

The main contribution of technology is to improve the material conditions of life.

Environmental Problems

Disasters related to the environment are numerous, and everyone is aware of their connection with industrialization and the culture of technification. The attitude towards the results of science and technique is assessed in different ways, especially as we face pressing problems like global warming or the hole in the ozone layer. These constitute a potential risk (possible accidents) and a real risk (problem of highly toxic radioactive waste).

The human species can be attributed the merit of having built its artificial world at the cost of oil spills and waste accumulation; that is, having built its world upon the destruction of the natural world. In recent years, there has been great progress and growth in environmentalism.