IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY ON SOCIETY
Introduction
According to Perrow (1967), technology is an action used to transform inputs to outputs. In other words, technologies are the tasks of individuals producing outputs. In microelectronics, technology can be viewed as those devices that make use of microprocessors and microcomputers. It also refers to user support services that are provided to assist users in performing the tasks. Technology is beneficial to man since it simplifies tasks for him, to work faster and efficiently. It also helps men to fit well to their environment. The main reason why technology is advancing is to improve the living standards of mankind.
Society deals with that which is around human beings. Society has an influence on how people live, relate and learn to coexist with each other in that environment. Society shapes the character of people within that area. It defines the morals of different groups of people in a certain region. There is a difference between developed countries and developing countries. This is because of the difference in technological advancements. If we relate this, we can say that technology affects our societies directly whether positively or negatively.
The progress of technological innovation in our society has virtually had an impact in all areas touching on the lifestyle of human beings. In regard to the impact on the economy, industries have been set up to produce electronics and electronic devices. The industries have employed thousands of people either directly or indirectly. This has also made people to acquire new skills on how to operate and maintain the day to day running of organizations. Also people agree widely that the advancement of technology has more advantages that disadvantages. This is because these new technologies have had a positive impact on the economy by providing new employment opportunities and improved the living standards of people.
At the start of the 19th century many people agreed that the pace of technological innovations which includes electronics was to continue advancing. If we examine the experiences in the US we can see that the economy has grown through technological innovations which have the potential of increasing efficiency. It was predicted that many people especially clerks were to lose their jobs through the introduction of computers and using of data support application in offices. On the contrary, what happened was the addition into the economy millions of employment opportunities. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics (1971), there were about 10 million people working as clerks in the US. This was close to 15 percent of total number of people in employment in the country. This number increased to more than 18 million by 1980 accounting for about 19 per cent of the total employment. This clearly indicated that the prediction in reduction in employment opportunities due to advancing technology was not true.
In his paper, Riche (1981) compared the number of clerical jobs created when computers were introduced against the number of jobs that that were lost by the same. He concluded that the number of clerical jobs that were created exceeded those that were eliminated. He goes further to assert that by introducing computers, jobs that man could not do were made possible. Or even those jobs that were perceived to be costly and time consuming too were made easier. Many uses and applications of computers are important. For example people use computers in every aspect in the running of an organization. This can range from preparing reports to running sophisticated statistical analysis in decision making process. These are some of the activities that were thought to be expensive before. It has also opened room for the development of new careers or professions for people.
With the increasing need of computers, industries were put in place to produce them. This also led to establishment of other industries to produce other related devices and support applications. This new shift had an impact in the economy too and the society at large since it opened several employment opportunities for the people. Computers also had an effect in how most industries worked. Some processes had to be automated which is a shift away from how they were running previously. This change can has an impact on different jobs at different levels. It may also require people to get more training in order to be conversant with the systems. The change can also lead to loss of jobs. In most cases we can directly tell the impact of the introduction of technology into a production system. But in other cases it’s not easy to tell. Therefore the purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of microelectronics in society.
Starting 1970’s there was an increased activity in technological development especially in microprocessors and microcomputers. This development advanced more as we entered 1980’s and up to where we are today. This is a great advancement in technological innovation in electronics. What we have seen over the past 50 or so decades is the transistor replacing the big vacuum tube that was developed early on during the process of making a miniaturized semiconductor integrated circuits which provide more power and reliability in a significantly smaller package (Riche, 1981). In a microprocessor are many electronic parts and complex circuits on a silicon chip less than one centimeter square. When they combine memory and input-output capability, a microcomputer can be produced. The application of microelectronics has seen a huge impact on almost every part of the operation of man worldwide (Riche, 1981). Most products in use in the world today actually use microprocessors and microcomputers.
Looking at the manufacturing industry, methods used to manufacture and produce products are undergoing continuous innovations and modifications. There is a huge application of Microelectronics in controlling the production machines. This has advanced to the extent that robots have been introduced and are being used in the manufacturing industries. The use of these microelectronic devices have also spread very fast to almost every business and its becoming man’s way of life. We have seen its application in stores for self-checkout points, the use of computers, calculators, in transmission of data, etc. The use of robot was a great advancement in the manufacturing sector. The Robot Institute of America (1980) defines a robot as a manipulator that is reprogrammable and multifunctional which is made in such a way so as to move material or parts or anything that it is designed to do through motions which are variably programmed to perform such kind of work.
According to PWC (2016) the robots will soon revolutionize the manufacturing industry. This is because robots have become much smarter, cheaper and more efficient. Robots can do more and can work for long hours. This advancement in technology has added more traits to them through different programs. They have more memory, they can “feel” and as such they actually have some form of human traits. With these human attributes, robot are able to work in areas of assembly, packaging or even doing inspections. There is widespread speculation on where this advancing technology is headed and what impact it will eventually have on the economy. There are fears that will the declining economic trends and rising cost of labor, manufacturing industries will opt into hiring more robots instead of human labor.
Impact on health
The healthcare sector has seen major advancement in technology in the recent past. The management of patient data has improved significantly. We have seen doctors sharing the information even remotely worldwide. Diagnosing of patient too has been computerized and it’s now easy to know the cause of a certain disease and start treatment early. Major medical advancements in healthcare technology in the 21st century also has enabled doctors to easily take images of internal organs and study certain ailments. Sophisticated Surgical operations are now possible thanks to technology.
With the advancement of this technology, people are spending more time sited either playing video games, chatting online, or watching movies or anything online. This reduces the time spent in for physical exercise and sometimes encourage overeating. This is part of the unhealthy practices that may lead to having problems with one’s weight. The advancement of technology has in some sense eliminated that aspect of physical contact in human beings. This can actually lead to depression. Use of technology has also been linked to the sleeping habits of people. Once people get attracted to something in the media, computer or anything electronic, they end up staying up late. This constant upstream of information without rest too eventually affects a person’s health. Also, technology has an effect on the mind and emotions of people.
There has been an argument on the use of technology in healthcare and its impact of replacing a face-to-face encounter with the doctor with virtual meetings. A number of authors have argued that this threatens doctor-patient relationship which is very fundamental in human healthcare. Bodenheimer and Grumbach (2003) argued once that satisfaction a patient gets by having a face-to-face encounter with the doctor is lost and also on the side of the doctor, therapeutic benefit and professional satisfaction is also lost. They further argued that there are more concerns on the advancement of technology in healthcare than there are benefits. This may end up adding more burden to a nonetheless overburdened sector.
Impact on the environment
Technology has helped in the conservation of the environment. Through monitoring of the levels of harmful waste to the environment to ways on how to deal with the effects. However, technology keeps changing each passing day and people desire to move to the latest technology. Therefore there is also the demand to replace the old technology with the new ones due to the perceived efficiency. This need to dump the old and replace with the new is adding to the levels of toxicity in our air and land. This can add to the chemicals which are not friendly to the environment if not disposed properly. Also plants that are manufacturing these products are on the rise either in expanding or building up of new ones. This adds up to the emissions they release up to the environment.
As technology advances, we have seen efforts to make devices which are energy efficient. But if we look at the overall energy consumption, the rate is still high. Also it has been noted that people do not turn of their computers, radios, TV’s and other devices. Manufacturing plants also do consume a lot of energy. This has an impact to the environment.
Any kind of technological advancement has both its advantages and disadvantages in the context of its impact on societies. These have a lasting impact on shaping cultural attributes. But so far the analysis in the paper has revealed that in as much as there are disadvantages to innovations and development of technology, advantages far much outweigh the disadvantages. Technology has changed how societal units operate in the 21st century. In every aspect that touches on man, there is a great difference with the society that was 100 years ago. The literature review has also revealed that as we go into more innovations, we have to be careful to look at the negative impacts it may have on our societies especially on the concerns raised in healthcare.
References
Bodenheimer T. and Grumbach K. (2003). Electronic Technology: A spark to revitalize primary care?. American medical association, 290(2)
Bureau of Labor Statistics and Martha Farnsworth Riche (1971), "Man-hour requirements decline in hospital construction," Monthly Labor Review, p. 48
Perrow, C. (1967). A framework for comparative analysis of organization. American sociological review, pp. 194-208
PricewaterhouseCoopers (2016): The new hire: How a new generation of robots is transforming manufacturing. Retrieved http://www.pwc.com/us/en/industrial- products/nextmanufacturing/robotic-trends-changing-manufacturing.html
Robot Institute of America, (1980).Robots Join the Labor Force. Business Weekly, pp. 62-76
Richard W. Riche (1981) Impact of new electronic technology. Paris, France
