Technology and it's Effect on Society

The advancement of technology over the past century has been an amazing progress, as an example; the U.S. has gone from the pony express to e-mail in such a short period of time. This is the kind of change that has affected the lives of all people around the world, the change that technology has continue to alter our lives and shape our societies. Mosco’s reading about how television (and technology in general) has shaped our lives brings up a few good points. He believed that television was invented as a, “…result of scientific and technical research.” (Mosco 11) for various reasons, both positive and negative. What he stated was that in the beginning, the use of the television was for scientific and societal advancements in the positive spectrum. As time went on though, people saw the power and potential in such an invention for uses of media, information transferral, reality perceptions, and many other aspects. It’s of no surprise that Mosco is right, television in this day in age is used in a variety of ways not thought of before by its’ inventors. For example, the media does report the news but in a way that was unintended. In this day and age, more than 50% of what is said in the news is negative information about a shooting, scandal, corrupt politician, war, aspects in the world that are dominating the media. Of course there are positive things that happen in this world, but when a shooting occurs someplace in the U.S. or in another part of the world, the good seems to be shoved aside for ratings. What Mosco is saying is that our views as people and a society have been skewed, we are desensitized to all the negative in the world because of how television has been used to portray worldly views. Here’s an example from the reading, “The real norm, in these actual societies, would seem rather to be: ‘unauthorised violence is impermissible.” (Mosco 123). When you watch a movie and see people die, individuals don’t cry and mourn, “…violent behavior is constantly represented and reported on television, its major communication system.” (Mosco 124); when someone is stealing millions of dollar in a movie, people cheer them on. As individuals, we’ve adapted to technology and allowed it to teach us how to ignore and even accept socially taboo things. Hearing on the radio that a freak accident happened and injured X amount of people doesn’t cause panic as it did a hundred years ago. Technology has shaped our lives not only in a negative aspect though, it has made life easier for some. You can sit down in your living room and order a movie, which is a nice luxury to have, and you can even purchase commercial free radio, and on a grand scale communicate with loved ones thousands of miles away. Technology such as a television is a curse and a blessing in it’s own way, there are negative aspects which Mosco was explaining, but on the flip side there are good things that have come from television. In the end we are all dependent on technology as a society since we see how easy it makes our lives. Without it, it wouldn’t take long for the world to find another way to replace it.