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TOPIC: ISSUE88 - "Technologies not only influence but actually determine social customs and ethics."
WORDS: 912
TIME: 00:41:53
DATE: 2010-7-20 11:25:48


With the development of the technology, it is without doubt that our social customs and ethics have been changing. But are there any inner connections between them? The author claims that the technology not only influence but actually determine the social customs and ethics. But to my point of view, I hold the opinion that the technology can just influence but can't actually determine our social customs and ethics.

When we retrospect the history, it is without doubt that our technologies have been developing and the social customs and ethics are also changing. But is there any necessary connections between them or they are just a coincidence? Thousands years ago, we can just write something on the rocks and with the development of technology, we invented paper and we can write letters. When we started to build an Internet, we could just sit before a computer which linked to Internet and send some message or e-mails to any corners in the world in few seconds. In this case, we needn't to visit somebody to say hello to him/her; instead, only by typing the keyboard can we do the something which might take months before. That's true; it seems that with the development of technology, our customs have changed. While for the ethics, people might not be allowed to do the abortion in the past. However, nowadays, the increasing rate of abortion has become a trend. What behind this phenomenon is the advanced medical technology? Both the examples above seem to indicate that it is the technology that has changed our customs and ethics. But is that true or we just made a fool mistake?

To begin with, I totally agree that the technologies could influence the social customs and ethics. In fact, technologies made something impossible in the past become the reality and hence make it possible that the customs and ethics could change. As for the example in the last paragraph, it is the communication technology that made the instant communication possible and people can use the newly developed technology to connect people thousands miles or several blocks away. No matter what the main factors are that determine this trend that people no longer visit people to discuss something or say hello to somebody, the technology actually make this change possible. Without it, even we desire a change; we are forced to keep the same. While for the abortion, if lives might be in danger when she does so, how could any one choose to take the risk? People might provide a long list of reasons why this will happen such as the less influence of the religions, the trend of the young culture, but only by technology, can this happen. On the other hand, the technology could influence the customs and ethics positively and help to spread the change. We might watch TV, search the Internet or listen to radio everyday. As a result, we might be influenced a lot by the customs and ethics in foreign countries. For example, the youth culture in 60s America was due to the influence of the media, which is also a masterpiece of technology.

As what I mentioned before, you might wonder as technologies are so important to the change of customs and ethics, can they actually determine them. In my opinion, they can't. In fact, in many other situations, although the technologies changed a lot, our customs and ethics never change. For example, when the Mid-autumn Festival comes in China, when Americans celebrate the Thanksgiving Day, when we have Christmas Day, no matter where you are, which age you are in, people will try their best to go back home to be with their families even the technologies have made it possible that we could hear and even see our families through the Internet. Other examples including our basic morale, our spirits and some basic ethics never change no matter how advanced our technologies are.

In fact, when we examine the change of our customs and ethics deeply, we can find that the true reasons why they changes are from our inner mind. They are something different then the tools we use because as the customs, they represent what we think about something and for ethics; they represent our inner morale standards and our desires. Just as the festivals I mentioned, they showed our desire for the close relationship of our family connected by the blood and love. How could it be possible that the tools we have change our mind, which sounds like that a cock declare that the sun only raise after it shoot every morning? What's more, the customs could also be a heritage of our ancestors and informs us a feeling of belongs, which is so important for the unity of country and our emotion dependence. As for ethics, they are the basic standards of our society. People obey them as the basic laws of society. They can only develop it to a higher standard according to the development of our necessary and our better understanding of our humanity.

In sum, the technologies can only influence but can't determine the social customs and ethics. They could help to make the change possible or to spread the trend. But what we should bear in mind is that the technology can't and we shouldn't let it determine our social customs and ethics, which might be harmful to the development of our society; instead, we should develop them for our demand.

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