English 101

Technology and its Effects on the World

After reading Andrew Sullivan’s essay “Society is Dead: We Have Retreated into the iWorld,” I had a few questions in the back of my mind: What creates a change in newer generations? Is it the technology that is introduced to the culture? Or is technology created to meet the needs of culture? Throughout history there have been many inventions that have revolutionized the world; many would say bronze weapons were a vital step forward; as well as irrigation, banking and the printing press. These inventions were powerful new devices or systems that helped shape our world, and Sullivan talks about one recent set of inventions and how they have memorably changed our society in his essay.

Noticeably one technology has helped define our generation, which is summed up in two words: the internet. This sharing of knowledge and information through the internet has led to a culture that expects immediate results quickly with little effort. Why call someone when you can send a text message instead? Why go to the library for information when you can find almost anything at the tip of your fingers at home? I recall being a young student and working on a report for a class on the Seattle Space Needle. We had just learned about how to search for and use periodicals, magazines and books in our papers from any library. After a failed day of searching in our local school library, my dad simply proposed we look online to see if we could find anything on the topic. By doing a simple search for the “Seattle Space Needle” I was able to find enough facts to fill my paper, with half the hassle of looking up dead end resources in a library. The internet has now grown considerably since those days; you can find chat rooms to discuss your favorite topics, find love through a dating website, have food delivered to you, attend church services, watch TV shows and movies, play Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games or even take a college course. Looking at this historically, this one technology has changed our entire world, in a profound way practically overnight. We are all retreating in to our own small self-rotating worlds with this new found power.

Now one facet of this new generation is what Sullivan calls the iWorld, and it is a subculture that has arisen based on the premise of our internet age. Slick and stylish is what Apple has millions of people worldwide sold on, and can most likely be traced back to the creation of the iPod in 2001. In nine small years there were 275 million units sold and in that time span is when Sullivan noticed, “What was once an occasional musical diversion became a compulsive obsession” (378). Millions of people now had the ability to arrange their entire music collection, and jumble them up on the go. This further pushed our culture forward by going mobile, no longer just attached to the computers in our homes. Like Sullivan, I must confess my use of Apple products. I have come to love my iPhone 4, which holds all my apps and allows me to easily access my music on the go. I am “connected” all the time, being able to check my email, texts, and play a game on my lunch break from one device. There are now even laws that prevent people from making phone calls and texting while driving, only a further indication of our isolation from each other.

Apple continues to lead the pack that pushes our society further into the digital age, with this new “mobile” direction, with products such as the iPhone and the almighty iPad. While they may not have been the first to introduce most technologies, they certainly were the first to spice them up and make them appealing to the “average joe”. Who hasn’t seen the classic commercials of bright colored backgrounds with blacked out people dancing with the iconic white headphones and wires? Apple has sold millions on the notion that we can be as ecstatic as those dancers when we buy an iPod or iPhone. Instead we end up in our “. . . own MP3 cocoon, bumping into others, deaf to the small social cues, shutting out anyone. . .” (377).

Our society has found a new comfort in the isolation we are able to provide for ourselves, as Sullivan diligently points out “We become masters of our own interests, more connected to people like us over the internet. . .” (379). I believe modern technologies have changed the way humans interact with each other; mentalities have been forever changed with instant access to whatever we have the mind to find on devices like the iPod. In conclusion, it is not my opinion that cultures demands for needs or technological advances will influence the other more, but rather it is a growing fusion of the two that compels a society forward.

Sullivan, Andrew. “Society is Dead: We Have Retreated into the iWorld.” Viewpoints. Ed. W. Royce Adams, 7^th ed. Boston, Wadsworth, 2010. (377-379)

“iPod + iTunes Timeline." Apple inc., n.d. Web. 29 Feb. 2012.