TOPIC: ISSUE88 - "Technologies not only influence but actually determine social customs and ethics."

WORDS: 519 (586) TIME: 00:43:01 DATE: 2008-4-7 19:55:02

Do technologies make effect on or even determine social customs and ethics. I agree with the speaker insofar as that customs and ethics, in most cases, are influenced by technology. However, further reflection reveals that it is hastily to draw a conclusion that technology is the essential factor to the form of customs and ethics.

It is indisputable that the modern technology, the results of modern development of science, benefits people much for its convenience and efficiency which improve the productivity in the industry, agriculture and some other fields as well as the quality and level of our daily life. It is the invention of the Internet that makes the news happened whenever and wherever around the world and the instant communication between the people far away from each other available in several seconds to the users. It is the devices of the robots that help employees do the dangerous work to save time, energy and decrease the numbers of industrial accidents. It is also the modern appliances including the washing machine, vacuum cleaner and so on keep housewives away from the tiring and boring housework. Unquestionable, it is obvious that the company can gain better profits with the help of the technology while the people will have enough time to enjoy the entertainments brought by the technology.

However, the technology is like a double-edged sword, which is to mean that it has threatened our deadline of the ethics and morality such as the technology of Internet and clone. For example, people will feel worried that whether the hackers have known their secret information and spread to the others or whether they will send the e-mail containing the computer viruses to destroy the whole system in the laptops. Simultaneously, things are the same when it comes to the technology of clone. Will human beings be cloned in future or what attitude shall we have on the persons and their cloning? Though it is not permitted to use the technology of clone on human being, who can make sure that no scientist are doing this research now. Therefore, there is no doubt that technology does have the influence on the people's ethics. What is more, it tries to change our original ethics, such as our value of the individuals.

In addition, it is hard to say that technologies are the decisive factor to determine the social customs and ethics. As we all know, most of the cultures and customs we have now were created by our predecessors' wisdom and hard work and have stood the test of time and experience and left to the present time, which are never changed by the technology. Christians are fond of praying in the church every week instead of using the Internet or the telephone. Children are eager to ask for candies from door to door in Halloween, rather than buying them in the vending machines. Customs and ethics, sometimes, are the symbols of a certain country or a nation which are very hard to be altered, or even replaced because they are the spirits passed by their ancestors, which will be inherited by their future offspring.

All in all, the left customs and ethics are definitely influenced so deep by the technology that we should promulgate the relevant laws and treaties in order to restrict the unlimited applications to every area to prevent from destroying our fixed moral systems.