Environmental Forces
It is not a secret for us that society today is changing with such a speed that our parents and especially grandparents couldn’t have ever imagined (Giddens, 2006). The key to such drastic development first of all lies in the technological advances that take place every day. Thousands of programmers work daily to ease our life and make it more convenient, introducing new powerful opportunities for us. Below there will be described four environmental forces that drive social changes today: social networks, instant messaging, systems of data management and portable devices.
The first important reality that has recently become firmly established in our lives is social networking. Owing to the developing technologies, today the youth and a considerable part of the adult population of civilized countries cannot imagine their lives without being a part of the social network (Kay & Friesen, 2011). It became a perfect platform for realizing potential of people, choosing and following some hobbies, and communicating with people. This force brings about certain positive social changes. Boundaries are being erased for many people and the way of thinking is also changed in this way. Further development of this technology can introduce many other interesting features in the life of people.
The next force that will be described is the development of communication technologies. Different instant messaging applications have made people who live far from each other much closer. Today video messaging is actively developing and is already realized in different ways. It allows for another level of communication, which also introduces major social changes. Today it is possible to organize different conferences and meetings with the help of these technologies and there are all the possibilities for the further development in this sphere.
One of the important environmental forces influencing the society is related to the technology and government. Today countries that are well-developed implement technology at the highest levels of country governing. Various tools are introduced and electronic records are kept that allow for quick solution of any problems arising in the life of society. It also allows for making the government more organized and open to the public. It is possible to receive constant feedback from people so as to improve their well-being.
The last technological development that brings about social changes is different portable devices such as tablets, PDAs, smartphones. They allow people not only to make use of the forces described above, but also do business, manage their time and entertain. It is necessary to make use of such developments, as they bring a lot of opportunities to people, making our life better organized.
Of course, it is necessary to take into account the negatives of such developments and social changes. A lot of people, especially those of the previous generations, are afraid that such social changes and developments in technology kill real relationships between people (Kumar, Novak & Tomkins, 2010). They think that people will stop communicating personally and will lose a lot of joy. But in fact, virtual communication in no way excludes personal, and can enrich relationships between people, making them easier and longer.
References
Giddens, A. (2006). Sociology. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Kay, A.C., & Friesen, J. (2011). On Social Stability and Social Change Understanding When System Justification Does and Does Not Occur. Current Directions in Psychological Science December, 20(6), 360-364.
Kumar, R., Novak, J., & Tomkins, A. (2010). Structure and Evolution of Online Social Networks. Link Mining: Models, Algorithms, and Applications, 4, 337-357.
