issue88 我们的九月小组-----第二十二次作业

maggie-leeUID: 2220892

题目：ISSUE 88 - "Technologies not only influence but actually determine social customs and ethics."
字数：491（659）          用时：0:44:45 （又花了15分）         日期：2006-8-18

With the rapid progress of technology, our life has changed significantly nowadays and the trend will continue in the future. Some people claims that currently the technologies are so powerful that they not only have considerable influence but further determine social customs and ethics. Admittedly, the enormous influence should be emphasized of technologies on social customs and ethics; however they are far from controlling social conventions and ethics.

First and foremost, technologies have brought spectacular and remarkable changes to our social customs and ethics. For instance, during the past years, we used to communicate with each other through writing letters and making telephones; however, when it comes to nowadays, most people have already handled these affairs by sending emails on computer nets which are more convenient, swift, and energy-saving. In addition, with the widespread and progress of technologies, people absorb new customs into their original one, take the festivals in China for example. In the past, Chinese tend to celebrate the traditional festivals such as Middle autumn day, spring festival in the certain days in terms of lunar calendar. At present, Chinese people not only pay much attention the traditional festivals, but also begin to attach great importance to the western traditional festivals, such as Christmas day, Valentine’s Day and so on which to a large extent enrich the life and experience of people. In addition, some technologies also help to get rid of the century-old bad customs, for example, genetics promote to realize the flaw of get marrying with the close relatives which is a old custom in China. In a word, great changed have taken place in the field of social customs and ethics, since the swift and full development of technologies.

However, we should not simply equate the influence with determined power, and as a matter of fact, social customs and ethics are far complicated and affected by a great many other factors, such as the history of the local areas, the traditional customs, and the special geographical location and so on. A critical factor affecting social customs and ethics is history, which significantly influences the process of formation. For instance, in ancient China, women are not allowed to take part in the management of nation and even have no opportunity to get a job in the society, since the Confucianism which is prevalent for thousands of years regards that women are born to take care of their husbands and children. Up to now, women seldom win high positions in the government or companies. Additionally, the geographical also affects the social customs and ethics in large degree. For instance, in China ChangJiang River and Huang River are viewed as the Mother Rivers since the water from it promotes the initial development of agriculture in ancient China. Presently, every year a special ceremony is hold there to express the gratitude of Chinese people, and this custom has lasted for quite a long time. Therefore, social customs and ethics are outcome of numerous factors, other than a single factor in technology.

In addition, the development of technology is well constrained by the current social customs and ethics so that to protect the welfares of people and keep the sustainable evolvement of society. For instance, some technologies such and clone, nuclear weapons, and biochemical weapons and so forth, which seriously contradict with the prevalent and accepted social customs and ethics. Take clone for instance, this technology is prohibited in most countries since it might do great harms to the benefits of human and even result in disorder of the social development. In short, merely the technology, which fit in with the regular social customs and ethics and promote the society to evolve in a healthy direction, can develop successfully and continuously.

In summary, it is necessary for us to well understand the role of technology in the formation of social customs and ethics. Furthermore, we should take advantage of beneficial technology and restrict the harmful one to satisfy the demands of human.

[ 本帖最后由 maggie-lee 于 2006-8-18 15:52 编辑 ]

veronicaaaUID: 2217022

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