Social Media as a Catalyst for Change
Technology. Society would be at a loss without it. Trains and planes would stop running, streetlights would go out, and cities would shut down. In fact, the entire world would come to a grinding halt. The lives of everyday people are intrinsically and irrevocably intertwined with technology, and for good reason. Technology has allowed humankind to progress. Through a sort of coevolution, humans and technology have helped each other to advance and become what they are today. As a society, humankind has developed from using sharpened sticks as weapons of war to AK-47s, and from printing presses as ways to spread news to Facebook and Twitter. Despite these huge advancements, humans have not yet progressed as far as they can. It is human nature to constantly push the limits of what is possible, so progress is inevitable, but limits could not be pushed as far as fast if technology did not reveal what human senses and determination are incapable of discovering. The idea of technology, though, is broad and multifaceted, and social media is just one area. Just like other forms of technology, social media has developed throughout history, growing increasingly faster and wide reaching. From inventions such as the six-hundred-year-old printing press to the Facebook and Twitter of today, media-based technology has never wavered in its role of expediting communication and opening doors. Social media is the catalyst that society needs in order to move forward.
History is riddled with almost constant rebellion and change. Humans are simply not content with standing still, but they alone are incapable of achieving change at the rate and the scale at which is desired. This shortcoming forces them to turn to tools, specifically those stemming from media-based technology. However, technology itself does not cause change. Something that is not a living and breathing entity, that is not human, cannot act by itself in creating progress. Technology merely provides a path of least
History is riddled with almost constant rebellion and change. Humans are simply not content with standing still, but they alone are incapable of achieving change at the rate and the scale at which is desired. This shortcoming forces them to turn to tools, specifically those stemming from media-based technology. However, technology itself does not cause change. Something that is not a living and breathing entity, that is not human, cannot act by itself in creating progress. Technology merely provides a path of least
Cited: Braudel, Fernand. 1973. Capitalism and Material Life: 1400-1800. Harper Torchbooks. Print. Gao, Helen. "The Atlantic." The Atlantic. The Atlantic Monthly Group, 16 Apr. 2012. Web