Issue88

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Issue88
"Technologies not only influence but actually determine social customs and ethics."
技术不仅仅影响而且实际上是决定了社会的传统和道德规范。

1.表面上看技术影响而且决定了社会的风俗和道德。人们不可否认的是技术改变了许多道德习惯，如传统的贺卡改为了电子卡，交流活动由以前聚会的方式改为网络交流。
2.很多情况下，扎根于自身文化土壤里的道德风俗并未改变。如中国的传统节日春节和西方的感恩节圣诞节。还有中国人尊老爱幼的传统美德仍未消失。
3.不仅只有技术能影响社会的传统和道德规范。

The speaker claims that technology can influence and actually determine social custom and ethics. I agree insofar as the development of technology has impact on the way people live and change some customs and habits. At the same time, however, the social customs and ethics have not been entirely determined or changed by the technologies as discussed below.

To begin with, I agree with the speaker that technologies influence social customs and etics. The obvious importance of technology to human cultural and social evolution has led some sociologists to view technology as a basic principle of social change. For example, in the past several decades, people preferred to send paper cards or to write letters. With the development of the computer science, more and more people choose to send electronic cards to relatives and friend at festivals and the e-mails is being popular as one of the most important communication tools in our daily life. People used to talk to faraway friends on telephone but now they may prefer chatting on the Internet. People enjoy the convenience and money-saving way brought by the new technology and thus their ways of thinking and behaviours are gradually changed.

However, technologies do not change all the social customs and ethics, let alone determine these customs and ethics. Some customs which are deeply rooted in the ethnical cultural didn't and won't change because they are the bases on which the nation stands. For instance, Chinese Spring Festival, a traditional festival which can be traced back to the ancient times, is still celebrated in the modern society. Since this festival has involved the core elements of the Chinese culture--peace, harmony, polite and so forth, people regard it as the most important festival in a year. So as the Thanksgiving Festival in the western countries. People express their gratitudes to God and all the merry things around. We can observe that it is not the festivals themselves attractive, but the principles and the culture inside the heart of the nation. These are all the merits and nice virtues which can inspiring people and will be handed down generation generation. For that matter, technologies will never change or determine these social customs and ethics.

In addition, technology is not the only factor influencing the society. In fact, many social customs convertion are made by the men themselves. For instance, overpopulation, which caused by ourselves, led to wars and migrations in return. Sometimes, people can also be influenced by regulations and rules. For example, when the ban on smoking at public places was carried out, people should change their own habits to get accustomed to the new rule. Otherwise, they would be punished by the law.


To sum up, technologies do influence the social customs and ethics in some aspects. But they do not change the habits and customs which are closely related to the nations' culture and civilization. Moreover, it is often true that human change their habits because of the themselves or even some rules. So the speaker's claim that technology determines the social customs and ethics is not well substantiated