The Influence of Technology on the World Since the 21st Century

Technology has changed major sectors around the world since the 21^st century including climate action, media, and healthcare as it became more personal and portable at that time. The first quarter of the 21^st century with major technological advancements has greatly shaped how people should consume technology, media, and the digital world because new technological trends paved the way for a rise in society’s requirements and expectations. Moreover, technology has had a profound impact on the way we think, how we look at the world, and the way we interact with other people in our surroundings. It has indeed transformed the way people think, act, react, work, learn, and even live. Social media which emerged in the past two decades greatly, is one of the perfect examples of how technology has made it easier for people to consume media, share information, and interact with each other. The emergence of social media and several other digital platforms has helped people to interact and collaborate with each other through remote work across the globe. However, technology also has negative effects as it increases screen time that has led to decreased face-to-face interaction so people need to be more aware of what and how they should use media as the world continues to develop new technologies.

Building on the revolutionary role and impact technology has offered to the world since the 21^st century with the emergence of social networking, VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) telephone calls, electronic mail, and blogs, people have invented forms of communication and interaction. Technology through the medium of the internet has made communication, education, healthcare, business, and other domains easier and faster. The living, thinking, and learning patterns have evolved with the passage of time since the 21^st century as technology has allowed its users to stay in contact with people regardless of location and time. This has constantly evolved how we think, act, live, and interact with other inhabitants of the Earth. However, the increased watch time and decreased face-to-face time have raised several questions that whether technology or the internet is a waste of time. Kenneth Goldsmith argues this question keeping both sides in view and states the facts that people consider watching screens more time-consuming and wasting of time but people are riveted to devices with great “concentration, focus, and engagement.” Moreover, critics question the role of technology as the medium that has made people antisocial due to which “we’ve lost the ability to have a conversation.” Goldsmith argues that conversation over the devices is now full of “emotion, anticipation, laughter” effects (Goldsmith).

In the early twenty-first century, the world has seen the tremendous development of internet-based technologies such as e-business, Cloud Computing, and e-learning in many domains including business, healthcare, science, education, and engineering. Electronic commerce or e-business is the significant outcome of the progress of technology that has altered the way of conducting commerce or business and economic activities in the world. The advances and innovations in technology have diverted the attention of numerous businesses and entrepreneurs are now expanding on the commerce conducted electronically over the internet. The biggest accomplishment technology has made so far in this regard is reducing the distance over the internet. Entrepreneurs navigate the new world of business making and giving way for technologies that can create new business models, approaches, and products and can interact with the energetic yet ever-emerging field of business. Businesses can outsource their manufacturing and production to other parts of the world and rely on technology through the use of telecommunications to be in close contact with manufacturing, marketing, resource markets, and tax regulatory authorities while firms distribute their manufacturing to other nations.

Furthermore, technology has also impacted the craft of education by introducing computer-assisted instruction and by eliminating traditional classroom instruction. A variety of data available online over the internet such as reading materials, learning activities, and solutions to difficult problem sets has offered a lot of convenience to learners of different age groups. Moreover, the technology of E-mail has surpassed the need to interact face-to-face in meetings as it has vastly simplified the medium of communication among faculty, management, and students. These advances in education have led to positive educational outcomes. The Internet has made things simpler, easier, and more accessible as computer-assisted learning has a better delivery of instruction and large expansion of coverage as lectures or instructions can be combined in the form of audio, video, graphics, or any other format in real-time to have better delivery and expansion of discussion in student-teacher groups. People who cannot attend college or university due to family, jobs, or any other personal reasons can now move to the opportunity of distance learning. Owing to the internet’s ease of access, availability, and convenience, people who cannot attend traditional courses have now opted for distance learning over the past two decades because the education world has majorly shifted towards online educational programmes as a substitution effect for expansion of educational opportunities as well as the growth of e-commerce.

Contrary to all the advances technology has made and all the benefits it has enriched the global society with, technology offers negative algorithms too when it comes to disconnection and disassociation while being present face-to-face. During a formal meeting or an informal conversation, the mere presence of a mobile phone on a table or in the pocket disconnects a person from the conversation as people even keep thinking about a silent phone. Their minds are interrupted and they do not feel invested in each other and lose a degree of connection as they change the periphery of their vision from a mere talk to the silent phone time by time (Turkle). However, no one can deny the fact that the 21^st century brought not only challenges but also an unprecedented amount of innovation and advancements in technology that helped the world move into a future where technology would potentially outpace a unique, efficient, better, and advanced world. On one hand, technology has a downside as it has developed “antisocial behavior and lack of social skill development” but on the other hand, it has also provided educational materials, learning systems, distance education, e-commerce, and other unending source of resources (Wardynski).

In a nutshell, the 21^st century showed no signs of stopping in terms of advances in technology and made a remarkable influence in different domains of society as technology has shaped society for many years to come. The future of technology has the highest values for the coming decades and will be truly formative as more and more technological innovations set to make waves in the digital climate. The constantly evolving digital world has shaped and will transform the world adapting and responding to evolving trends both now and in the future. However, technology has connected the world on the one hand and has also divided people like nothing before on the other hand. People of the contemporary world are now allowed to find and express their voices and thoughts through information technology and social media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram (Parnett). In essence, the world and its inhabitants are changed in many ways due to the advances in technology since the start of the 21^st century. The words that sum up the efforts technology has made since the 21^st century in the world are “exponential growth” and this growth continues to increase exponentially day by day.

Works Cited

Goldsmith, Kenneth. “Go Ahead, Waste Time on the Internet” $WIKI_REFERENCE$/pages/final-exam-reading-1?module_item_id=gb0184cc1aa5313cac55f53ed1bc95e11

Parnett, Bailey. “Is Social Media Hurting Your Mental Health?” YouTube, 22 June 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Czg_9C7gw0o

Turkle, Sherry. “Stop Googling. Let’s Talk” $WIKI_REFERENCE$/pages/final-exam-reading-2?module_item_id=gaa552bc7c07c33da3e59499be206ca9c

Wardynski, DJ. “What Are the Effects of Technology on Human Interaction?” pdf. $CANVAS_COURSE_REFERENCE$/file_ref/gb3c2d00878bc39faf63ea08a5d947010