A cell phone rings in the pocket of a business man, as he checks his e-mail on his personal laptop computer.  Over the past couple of years, i-pods, cell phones, and other types of technology have begun to take over western civilization. The days of type writers and house phones are in the past, and America loves it. Most American citizens will not leave home without their cell phone or Blackberry, and countless others spend hours in front of high definition televisions watching shows, or playing video games.

If you had told someone fifty years ago that money transfers could be handled electronically in the future, and the internet would hold nearly limitless knowledge, they likely would have laughed you out of town. Today, you are the laughing stock if you lack the technology that nearly everyone has. It seems as though in this day and age, your success is dependent on whether or not you have up to date technology. This leads us to ask ourselves:  Is this good for America?

Technology has impacted our country both positively and negatively. From a social standpoint, technology has streamlined social networking, and has made meeting face to face obsolete.  Meeting people over the Internet in this day and age is more common than it has ever been. Although expanding social horizons is good, is this the safest way of meeting new people? For years it has been heard that countless young children, mostly female, have ended up sexually assaulted after being lured into an internet predator’s deadly snare. Posing as a down to earth teenage boy, these internet scum bags meet up with young women with the sole purpose of sexually assaulting them. After events like these, it is easy to point the finger at social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace. Although personal decisions go along with internet security, these websites are the enablers. Aside from this, technology has nearly eliminated letters sent via postage, or visits to people’s houses. Email and phone calls have become the new way of interacting. Social interactions just aren’t the same as they used to be, which has certainly changed our country.

Although technology has hurt our social interactions, it has certainly sped up the process of doing business. Money transfers that occur at banks can now be done electronically, and e-mail has seamlessly connected millions who work in the same field. Blackberries, and cell phones can store countless numbers, so executives are no longer required to memorize numbers of important colleagues. However, because businesses are so dependent on technology, computer failures can be detrimental to a corporation. I talked to Matt Whitaker, senior, who fixes computers as a job. “A lot of bad things can happen to your computer. Spyware, Malware, and any kind of viruses can significantly slow down your computer or even completely crash it,” he responded. If people like Matt didn’t exist, businesses would be in a lot of trouble, computer failures do happen.

Another great thing about technology in our society is that it enriches education for students. Computers can help students by providing research programs such as encyclopedia online, and search engines such as Google and Bing. Word processing also comes with computers, which allows students to create documents that are neat, spellchecked, and printed off. Since typing is much quicker than writing, documents can be created much faster by students with computers.

Change is a necessary part of any society. Whether we like it or not, technology has become an important part of our society. While it has its drawbacks, technology helps our society out quite a bit. The next time you make a call on your cell phone or type a document on Microsoft Word, take a moment to appreciate technology.