This week we talked about technology itself and how this technology is affecting our lives.
This week two articles talked about the down side of technology. Reading these two articles brought up some new thoughts that I have never considered. Living in the 21st century, technology has always been acknowledged as a helpful tool in society. However, the first article ‘Laboring under the digital divide’ argues, “improved technical training and access cannot overcome the digital labor force divide, because gaps in pay, security, and dignity cleave the high-tech job market”(Rodino, p487). The article further discusses about how technology brings the division.
The second article, also, disproves the point that technology brings convenience into our lives. The article ‘More Work for Mother’ discusses how industrialization transformed American households and continues to critique how technology did not bring advancement but more work. Before reading more about the author’s argument, it was hard for me to comprehend her point because I am one of the people who always praised the development of technology. However, as I read through the article I was able to understand the point that the author tried to convey. This article can be summarized by this one quote which says, “industrialization of the home seems to have been the product of the perpetually rising expectations of American consumers” (Cowan, pp. 6). To prove this point, the author continuously provides examples in the article. For example, the author tells the reader how the new wall cabinet, which was supposed to make the housework convenient, changed people’s behavior patterns. The author stretches out by giving more examples of how other technological systems made things more complicated and inconvenient.
In class, we talked about these issues. At some point I was able to understand the problems that technology can bring to our lives, but most of the time I wasn’t able to agree with the author’s argument. It is true that people cannot live without technology because today we have become too dependent on it. However, the reason that we have become too dependent on technology is because it makes our lives comfortable and efficient. The author Cowan might claim that although technology saves time, as time is saved more work is given. Therefore, he might argue, life without technology is much simpler; however, if we look at it in a different perspective, we could also say that more work is given because we are able to save time and do more things.
Citation:
Cowan, R. More Work For Mother. pp. 1-18
Tyler Christian Floryan says
Your article does bring about some excellent points on how the author is wrong on how technology is not advancing us. Technological advances are happening throughout our lives daily and we continue to break new boundaries and go beyond our widest imaginations in creating technological advances. We are always looking into making our lives easier and always aiming to help better our lives by trying to create the next big thing, like the microwave. I really enjoyed your article, but instead of constantly saying how wrong the author is prove them being wrong by instead writing more on realistic notions and not on saying how wrong they are.