fixing the essay

Tracy Zhou

Nov.18.2019

Brain Shevory

Impacts of Technology on Culture

Technology has for a long time shaped our culture in many ways, ranging from the way

we do our daily work to our health issues and even how we communicate with each other. In this

essay, I will be discussing the various impacts of technological designs on the culture of human

beings and their corresponding negative effects on consumers. Many cases have proven that most

technological designs do not usually bring out the expected user experience to their target

customers and they are believed to be directed towards a group of people who are trained to use

the technologies. This makes it difficult for inexperienced users to get the most out of

technology. I will also be discussing the power of technology to the community and its

underlying factors. I will analyze what may cause people to develop a certain technology, and

under this, I will be able to explain the assumption that technology is neutral. Besides, I will be

discussing the internet and its effects on the culture of human beings. This essay will also explain

the trade-offs that usually occur when adopting new technologies and elaborate on various

examples of technologies mentioned in the readings and explain how they change or affect a

need in society. This will also include society's attitudes toward certain technologies and also

explain the burden that the internet has helped us to solve in our daily lives. This, therefore,

reveals that the internet is crucial to our lives. Furthermore, I will also discuss how people’s way

of life has negatively changed in terms of social interaction, due to the use of the internet. These

assumptions about technology usually have various consequences and may affect the cultural

values of different groups who come into contact with these technologies.

Technology has always been developed to suit the customers’ expectations and deliver

the best experience. This is one of the assumptions that people have about technology but this

has not always been the case. Many people have encountered problems when using various

machines in their daily lives, for example, a person may not be able to use automated teller

machines which are found in various places due to their configuration. One may not be able to

know the process of making requests into these machines for them to deliver actions such as

releasing food items or money. The designers of these automated machines usually feel that their

technology can be understood by anybody but in the real sense people need some basic training

to deal with them, for instance, according to Norman, “What about everyday people who might

have no training, who might only use one machine occasionally?” (Norman, p.464). Most people

usually resolve to trial and error to learn by themselves on how to use some machines and this

can lead to their breakdown, this is according to Norman, “as they experience success or failure.”

(Norman, p469). However, the advancement of artificial intelligence systems in history has seen

a number of rising cases of laziness in the culture of human beings, for example, computer

games have seen many youths and even adults spend a lot of time playing video games, which

are an example of artificial intelligence, instead of doing their school assignments or household

chores . The interaction between people and technology has not been pretty good for the past

decades to issues such as system failure in autonomous vehicles and planes resulting in accidents

and also failed to understand the workings of the machines.

The power of technology to a community is usually dependent is dependent on the user.

This assumption is based on the fact the people will tend to get more satisfied or unsatisfied with

a certain type of technology if they come into contact with it, for instance, according to Latterell,

“power behind technologies lies with the users.” (Latterell, p419). You cannot know the abilities

of a machine if you have never tried using it. This assumption also brings out the idea that it is

the people’s needs that will drive them to attempt using new technologies or to develop new

ones, for example developing AI technologies in cars to prevent accidents. The creators of these

technologies will always try to embrace their culture in the development of these technologies

thus they come up with inventions that can suit their needs in their cultural setting to satisfy their

needs, for instance, according to Latterell, “Modify nature to meet their needs and

wants.” (Latterell, p414). User experience is also essential in enabling one to get to understand

technology better than before because they will have made more interactions with the machines

and understood their logic. Besides, most technologies come along with their user manuals to

make the user experience better but it needs a lot of understanding of how the machine works

and its efficiency in delivering tasks for one to say that the technology is reliable. In cases where

customers complain feel that there is something to be corrected about the technologies, there are

various ways of channeling the issues experienced to the developer and they usually work on it

to ensure great user experience. This, in turn, makes the people involved to appreciate the

technology. The capability of understanding the power of technology reveals that technology is

neutral and people can perceive it in different ways.

The internet has had a major role in shaping our culture in various ways. The use of the

internet had been criticized for many reasons and one of them is that the internet has made

people lose the reading culture that used to exist during the times when printed media and books

were largely used to convey most information. This is believed to cause most people to lose

cognitive aspect of life because the information displayed in the internet sources is too much and

becomes a heavy load for a reader to decide on which information to use.it is also believed that

the evolution of the internet has contributed to the growth of bad morals through the type of

contents and pictures that are available on the internet. The internet also has brought by the

different aspects of cognitive entanglement where people are now tied to the internet sources and

rely on them for all their needs and fall in love with them too. The networked computer is built

with the sole purpose of scattering pour attention from things that surround us in our daily lives

and also break down our capacity for creative and critical thinking, for instance, according to

Gopnik, “It is designed to scatter our attention,” (Gopnik, p447). The internet and instant

messaging has caused many effects, the neurological aspect being that children’s brain are

altered and they get addicted to internet screens.it has also brought about separation of families,

where family members can sit together for a long time without one excusing himself to go and

attend to their screens and monitors, according to Gopnik, “Somebody excuses themselves for a

bathroom visit.” (Gopnik, p447). The internet is thought to break the meditational space that

wisdom depended upon. Briefly, the internet and technology are usually related in most cases,

for instance, internet development is as a result of advancement in technology and research that

is carried out in the internet can be used to develop new kinds of technologies. Technological

advancement is usually driven by the need of a community or a society, for example,

development of fridges that measure your components of health and instruct you on what foods

to take and not to take regarding your measured health status was to address the issue of

malnutrition and curb lifestyle diseases such as cancer. The artificial intelligence kits in

automobiles, which track the driver’s behavior, and controls the vehicle in times of inappropriate

action by the driver are aimed at reducing the rates of road accidents caused by careless drivers.

Mobile and computer apps that are used to remind people of certain events to help to increase

punctuality.

Overall, these technological advancements do not usually bring a positive performance of

good behavior change. People who heavily rely on the use of a machine to do their daily chores

end up adopting a lazy culture. Most people are usually never satisfied with the working of the

new technologies for they do not have basic knowledge about it. Lack of common ground

between human beings and the machines is what usually restricts fluent interaction between the

two. Similarly, some people may expect that machines can do a lot of work because they are not

humans, not knowing that the machines have limitations. This is one of the things that brings

dissatisfaction in people. The internet is also criticized by many people because it has created a

culture in which people find no need of talking physically to each other and this reduces a

person’s capability of handling different groups of people outside the internet world. In many

cases, people have become addicts to the internet and its resources. They no longer read books to

gather what may be termed as the best information so far, and this makes the internet to be

criticized for destroying the reading culture. Some of the trade-offs that may occur are

inappropriate use of the internet, for example, displaying adult content to young audiences or

using the internet to fraud people through their online banking systems