TOPIC: ISSUE88 - "Technologies not only influence but actually determine social customs and ethics."
WORDS: 582 TIME: 11:19-11:59AM DATE: 2006/08/14
I agree with the opinion that technologies not only influence but actually determine social customs and ethics to certain extend. It is true that we are under such an irrestrictable wave of technology changes that inevitably our social customs and ethics will be changed by them. But history proves that some of the core ethics of the human beings are not likely to be influenced quite a lot. And the social customs are not changed by the influence, but not determined by them.
According to Marx's theory, technology is the representation of the productivity and social customs and ethics are the representation of the production relationship. The technology determines the social relationships. In this means, the social customs and ethics are not only greatly influenced, but actually determined by the technologies.
Technology is the reflection of the productivity of a specific era. During the pre-history time, people use fire and stones as their tools for surviving. At the time, the technology is almost nothing and is the mere origin of the tools. To survive in the harsh environment, people need to depend on each other by gathering seeds, hunting for animals and making fire. The relationship between the members of the tribe is entirely due to the primeval condition of making living. Those who help each other can survive, live better and have descendents who carry their genes. The ethics of the time reflects the impact set by the tools, by the means of technology. Only those who help others to take care of children and watch out fire can be a good member of the society.
Although living a life different from the lives of the ancient history, we somehow ensure the ethics today change little, despite the tremendous change of the technology. People value the virtue of loyalty, trust, honesty and so on. Though we do not rely solely on each other, but still a lot of relationship are build on these fundamental elements of the human beings. That is because the human nature determines the ethics of us. We still protect children although the technology makes it possible for a mother to abolish her child; we still help each other by building lots of accommodations for old and poor people; we set up a society in an aim to help all members of the society for a welfare of life.
We should admit that technology has changed the social customs a lot. Today, the rapid development has left the living styles and customs far behind since the third wave of technology. The widespread use of computers, cell phones and digital devices has made our lives hugely different from our ancestors. As a result, the social customs, have changed accordingly. People around the world use the high technology to contact each other by means of e-mail, short messages and so on. What we used to treasure for about twenty years ago: the letters on paper, are no longer in wide use. We are so used to what high technology brings to us as a more convenient way of communicating while forgetting a lot of previous customs. We are used to the changes that technologies have bring to us and we are expecting what the further evolution and improvement of technology will bring to us.
The social trend is like this: no matter how the technology change, the core values of our society change little, therefore the customs and ethics are not determine by them, but rather by the people themselves.