Impact of Technology on the economic and social relations (Essay Sample)

Impact of Technology on the economic and social relations Name Institution Abstract Technological advancement is the key to the economic development and change in the social interaction between members of a given society in the globe. Apparently, vital issues drive the economy and social aspect of individuals. The ability to distribute, create, and exploit knowledge has been one of the drivers towards improvement in the improvement of the quality of life among people. Thus, the main features that transform the change in the technology is the impact that information and communication technology has on the people and the economy, scientific innovation, and rising innovations among industries as they try to compete others technologically. Therefore, due to the changing technological innovation, there has been an extensive impact on the way individuals interact with each other. As such, they are the key to improving the social well-being of the people around the globe. For this reason, the essay analyzes the impacts of technological innovations and development on the social relations and the other economic sectors. Therefore, the paper provides an analysis of the impacts of technological innovations in the social relations by studying theories that explain the impacts of technological advancement on the social interaction of the people. Due to improvement in technology, some developments have been realized ranging from infrastructure, communication, and transportation. Thus, the theories state that technological growth has led to the development of good interaction sites like Facebook. Besides, it has also led growth in the economy as many firms compete to advance their products technologically; hence, attracting both local and foreign users of the product. In summary, technological advancement in the field of social interaction and economic development has impacted the social life of the people and the growth of the economy. Impact of technology on the economic and social relations Introduction The technological innovation plays a significant role in social relations and the economic sectors; it is one of the major agents of social change in society. Hence, this paper aims at analyzing the impact of technological innovation on social relations and the economic sector; this topic has been chosen since it has relevance other people and the author. The subject of investigation relates to other people in different perspectives. First, technological innovations and development are rapidly evolving economic sector and social relations. As far as development is concerned, it has new ways of doing things in a more efficient and effective ways, for instance, the sector of telecommunication has revolutionized how people relate to each other through innovative means of communication. Secondly, technological innovation has been embraced in society since it comes with employment opportunities that boost the economic well-being of members of the Society (Harper, 2011). Additionally, analyzing these effects sheds light on the trend of technology and innovations that companies in a particular sector such as telecommunication services providers have experienced so far. Technological innovation makes it possible to identify what to expect as a result of changes that emerge from the innovation, adoption and use of technology. Hence, people implement measures, techniques and strategies on how to adopt and adapt to the new technological innovations and development for their survival (Puja Mondale, 2013). Finally, studying the topic would enable the author to identify sectors that have lagged behind due to the technological development. Exploring the topic will enable the author to identify sectors that require urgent attention. The issue connects to the author personally in a manner that as much as people have come up with so many discoveries, technological innovations and development, there is more to be done. Furthermore, the author believes that technology does not cover everything and therefore, does not provide solutions to all problems or challenges affecting lives of individuals in the whole world. Therefore, while exploring the topic the author will be more concerned about the gaps left, or in other words, the parts that have not been covered by the modern technological innovations and developments. The author’s past experience has been changing; for instance, the way of doing things such as communication, transportation means and making deliveries due to improved technology. Analysis Using Theoretical Concepts The theoretical frameworks that apply to the topic of investigation are the economic theory, the technological theory, conflict perspective, evolutionary theory and functionalist perspective. The economic theory, also called Marxian perspective posits that changes in the economic infrastructure of the society are the prime mover of social change (Harper, 2011). These economic foundations include forces of production such as land, labor, machines, tools and mode of production such as techniques. According to Marx (n.d, cited by Harper, 2011), change occurs in the society when there is dislocation of production forces and social relations of the production. Since the primary objective of the capitalist is to gain more profits, the bourgeoisie will upgrade to the latest technology to reduce the costs of labor and other production costs. In this case, the technological innovation is adopted in the production process to reduce the production costs. The technological perspective holds that change comes about when people embrace technology; therefore, technology can initiate change in the arrangement of social relationships. Technological innovation creates new conditions of life that are adopted by other members of the society. The technological theory believes that the high proportion of the whole civilization of human beings is the product of technological development (Harper, 2011). Therefore, any technological innovation or development has an impact on the social lives of individuals who have welcomed it. Technological innovation can transform the social relations and economic spheres of human lives. The conflict perspective believes that change is required to correct the evils of that exist in society; these include social injustices and inequalities. Therefore, conflict is necessary for change to occur; according to Harper (2011), all the changes that have occurred in society or has to occur, the conflict must drive them to occur. Any form of technological innovation will create conflict before being accepted in society; this kind of resistance has been noted in different parts of the world when an innovation intends to reduce or replace human labor. For instance, when computers were introduced at the workplace, there was fear they would replace human labor. Although innovation is initially opposed due to its ability to change the social and structural arrangement of the society, they have the ability to diffuse slowly into the social and economic sectors. Functionalism theorist holds that society is a balanced system whose institutions, each serves a unique function to keep the system in equilibrium. When one of the institution changes, all the others have to adjust to the change, hence, inducing the social change to the whole system in the process of restoring the stability (Harper, 2011). Therefore, employing technological innovation to one institution of the society, for example, economic sector can cause a change in the whole society when the system adjusts to it. For instance, the world is slowly incorporating technology in education; this is likely to change the overall perception of education compared to 50 years back. The last theoretical framework to explore is evolution theory; it posits that the changes of the characteristic features of the human society and the presently observed condition of the society, is presumed to be the result of the changing past" (Puja Mondal, 2013). In this case, the modern ways of doing things are the outcome of the technological development and innovations that took place in the past. According to the multilinear theory of evolution, the progression from smaller to larger, rural to urban, and little technology to higher technology is an average trend of development. Hence, technological innovation has the ability to drive the social and economic sectors to higher levels where efficiency and the costs of production are at minimum compared to the current levels. Application of Research Technological innovation has changed the social relationships of couples and people at the workplace. According to Leggett and Rossouw (2014), the increased use of technology in communication has revolutionized how people associate at work and home; the contemporary technology has enabled people to connect and disconnect continuously during the face-to-face interactions with other people. In their research, Leggett and Rossouw (2014) discovered that when two partners are together, and one is busy on a laptop without engaging each other, it was perceived that the other partner was not interested in the relationship. The study reveals one area where technology has changed the perception of the relationships within couples. However, the study revealed that when the two partners are all using the communication gadget, such perception does not exist. Therefore, technological innovation, despite having adverse effects, can be used effectively to developed relationships between partners and workmates. Hence, technological innovation can increase the sense of attachment, and social connection through Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, when properly managed between partners. The strength of this work is that it depended on the primary data to analyze the impact of technology on relationships. ...