Following the American Psychological Association’s Guidelines
3-D printing technology is a new technology and it is expected that it will influence all dimensions of our lives. Our life includes working, home, school, and our social life. From another perspective, we produce and we consume in the economy. This perspective allows us to have a better comprehension how 3-D printing technology might influence our lives.
The pressure because of the new 3-D technology on the labor market will reflect mostly onto the workers. The number of workers demanded in the market will decrease and many people will be unemployed. The competition among the workers in the labor market will be much higher. That means many workers will be trying to gain new skills to get a better position in the labor market. The high competition and the high risk of being unemployed create stress on workers and they face psychological problems. The psychological pressure on workers forces them to develop a new psychological path to cope with the problems in the job market. They need to be able to prove that they can cope with the pressure; otherwise, the companies might fire them. Or the psychologically strong workers have an advantage to keep their positions.
At the society level, the high pressure on the workers might destroy the trust among the people. They might be more suspicious about the other people in the society. This situation forces them to hide information and even sometimes steal information and hide it from the other people. This way they can secure their positions in the job market. The distrust in the society causes many derived social problems. The social life transforms into single lives next to each other. Also the increase in the unemployment causes inflation in the economy. People spend most of their time to make money and survive. Consequently, we observe individuals living separately. As known, the social cooperation helps us solve many relevant social problems. The weak social relations mean that individuals cannot get social support in case of facing a problem.
On the consumption dimension, the 3-D printing technology will allow us to have more from the production facilities. The 3-D printing technology will enable us to produce tailor-made productions. Each specific demand might be matched by the producers thanks to the 3-D printing. This situation might increase the gap between poor and rich. The rich people will be able to buy high technology products and better life conditions while the poor will be facing the income problem. The social inequality to access to the high products in the market might cause new social strikes.
Finally, the 3-D printing technology will change many production facilities and working in these companies directly. Indirectly, it will influence many dimensions in our lives. We are consumers and producers at the same time. Working time, consuming time and our social life is the total of our lives. Each of them will be affected by the new technology. We have observed how the internet and the social media technology influenced our lives. The 3-D printing technology is expected to influence our lives very deeply. The discrepancy between the poor and the rich might open more if the distributive equity is not intervened by the states.
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