Science, Technology

and Society
(Term Paper)

Dulce, Ezra Danielle G.

Have you ever wondered or imagined if one day we wouldn’t have any means of having or using
Technology? What if all the Machines, Artificial Intelligences, Transportations, Gadgets etc. would vanish
from our lives and all of them will be gone for one day? Would it make a change and impose an effect in our
technology dependent and rapidly advancing world?

History would set a great evidence that humans first lived without having any means of technology
but as time passes by, they have learned convenience and the power of inventions. Humans are very much
alike into animals in their way of survival, they have to eat, to sleep, to feel non-sexual or sexual pleasure
together with their partners but still they differ from each other, animals can live without technology and
humans cannot, why? The simplest answer would be, humans have their own level and kind of intelligence
and cognitive capacity that is very different from all the living creatures we have in this world. The main reason
why humans cannot separate themselves or cannot stop from making new technological advancement is
simply because of exploration and survival. It is very visual in the pre-historic period wherein their generation
have created several tools and equipment that can help and support them on their survival. This means that
since then, the rise of different inventions and the development of the technology or the tools made are
undeniable mainly because of our curiosity in life and our needs in survival.

You cannot deny the fact that technologies are useful and very convenient in dealing with the
everyday life. Can we conclude that the rise of technologies are unstoppable? Well, to be honest, almost
every day we are discovering such great inventions that will impress us. We want life to be easy and hassle
free so this new inventions seems to be no problem. We all have different perspective in life and how we
should deal with it but the modernization these days seems to influence our beliefs about certain things in
life. As of now it is almost rare to find someone who can absolutely live a day without using technology, the
impact of technology isn’t just observed through one’s body, mind and how he/she acts in the community
thus, its impact is seen in the holistic being of a person. Emotions can also be one aspect that technology
can impose its impact. Teenagers are very “techy” nowadays that they almost spend their entire day just
streaming in their social media accounts which involves Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, etc. This
kind of lifestyle can have an effect in their personality and behavior that is why the elderly people always
compare the new generation into the older ones because of how fast life can become in just one click
compared to how the people back then used their own means of having communication, getting information
and spending their leisure time. It is also a big deal how the technologies changed how the world runs and
how the people move or act in it. As time passes by, changes in behavior of the people are affected by how
the advancement of technology moves. If technology is fast then our lives are also fast, if it is slow then our
lives are also slow together with our complains. What if technology doesn’t just became slow or experienced
a sudden stop but it became totally gone? Would our lives differ from before or are we able to survive this
kind of global phenomenon? If using technologies and different kind of machineries became a part of our
everyday lives then we can conclude that it will be hard for us if all of it will be gone even if it is just in a day.

If technology would be gone, most of us wouldn’t survive in few days and the few who were left
wouldn’t survive in few weeks and we can say that humans would be extinct in a year. You see, this
phenomena would affect mostly those developed and rich countries who are very technological dependent
and who are seems to be run mostly by machines and technologies. Definitely it will affect them so much that
it will hinder them from being productive. Their world would stop for one day especially that technology is the
main reason why some developed countries are running. If I were to illustrate, technologies can be compared
in an oil and those countries are the engines that wouldn’t start if there is no oil. You see, technologies and
tools are as important as food, as important as shelter and as important as clothes. I don’t know why but I
think somehow someday, technologies might become a part of the basic needs of human in order to live.
This doesn’t just affect developed countries but also the developing ones. We cannot unchanged what is
already happening and that is the unstoppable influence of advance technologies that the most common fan
or users are from the developing countries and most of its investors or the companies that produces this kind
of technologies are from the developed countries.

Losing technology for a day seems to be a disaster especially if we try to imagine ourselves in that
kind of situation. But come to think of it, would it also benefit us? I am definitely sure that losing technology
wouldn’t make our world stop or our lives slower, hence I think it will become a way for the global realizations
about how important lives are and the significance of living your life to the fullest. So the main question would
be, Is it really possible to survive a day without technology? How?

According to Gerstel (2015), living a day without any means of technology is very possible and it
wasn’t really that hard. She tried it for herself, she did not use her mobile phone, watch television, listen into
music and use her personal computer. However, before she did the experiment she had to tell her parents
and her friends that she was going off the grid for 24 hours which was hard for them because they text her
almost every day. At the end, that experience opened her eyes to see how technology affects herself. She
actually benefitted a tremendous amount from that day without technology. She also claims that there are
positive and negative effects of having technology everywhere but there are still good and bad about
everything that happens. She also appreciated all the things behind the technologies she always use every
day that there are far more greater things to discover rather than sitting there and looking straight up into
your mobile phones while streaming into your mobile accounts. She also recommend that people should try
letting go of their gadgets and free themselves from technology even in just a day because it can really help
an individual to discover more of herself and most especially, the people around him/her.

We must not be afraid if the technologies we use will be gone because this can help us improve our
self and how we perceive life. We must control ourselves from being so impatient if our mobile phone is
hanging or the internet is slow. Always see the bigger picture. Yes it is true that Science and Technology
already played a vital role in our lives today. It made things so much easier and a lot more comfortable for
us. This generation provides us so much advanced and high-tech machineries, tools and equipment that
helped us live and surpass everyday challenges with lesser hassle than the past generations had
experienced before. But life is becoming too fast, we almost forgot the real essence of living our lives to the
fullest because we want things to be easy and we want to make abrupt decisions to avoid having pile of
works. You might already experience when you want to finish certain things as soon as possible probably
because you don’t want a loaded work, you want to rest early, or you some other important things to do. All
of us must stop worrying and start thinking about our own welfare and the future that we might face.

Stop focusing so much about how life will become if there wouldn’t be any means of technology. we
must start thinking about the right usage of it in order for us to provide some of our time in the reality and to
interact with other people in the society, with this we can all produce a better and stable world wherein
humans are disciplined in the way they create and use technologies. If we will not be careful of what we have
today then our future might suffer. It is not impossible that one day we can be replaced or we can be
personally destroyed by different technologies that we have, but “prevention is better than cure”, we must
start thinking about it now, and if we see the problem, we must be open to every solution that can and will
save us from our own destruction. We must always remember that Technologies are just objects crafted and
built by wires, metals, energy, electricity, etc. but Humans were built with brain for rationalization, heart for
our emotions, body for personal and societal interactions and a soul for morality and compassion. The
decisions will always rely on us. So are you willing to take the challenge of setting yourself free from
technologies for 24 hours?

“Never trust something that can think for itself if you can’t see where it keeps its brain.” – J.K. Rowling
How Technology changed the way we learned today?

Technology doesn’t just affect the way we think, we feel and how we speak. It is also a big deal how
technology changed the way people are learning today especially the younger generations. Ever since
technology advances rapidly and companies are competing side by side whether whose product is much
better, it imposed an impact on many aspects of each and everyone’s life especially in the field of education
wherein the latest curriculum doesn’t think that the traditional way of teaching is compatible for students
nowadays because most of them prefer the technological way or to utilize technologies while learning inside
the class. In the past few years, the inventions in the industry of technology seems to have a good effect on
the students’ learning for it helped them to make discussions easier with the help of slide presentations,
videos and images, lesser paper works with the aid of Microsoft word and the internet. Today, students can
find learning so much easier than before. One click and you can find the things you’re looking for, but does
this have the capability to nurture the students’ potential in terms of learning? Does this type of learning
greatly benefit students or will it cause so much damage to them?

We can all admit the fact that using technology in learning has a greater benefit rather than sticking
to the traditional ways of learning. It benefit the students in terms of making things so much easier for them
and provide them lesser time in studying and more time in other life related tasks. Since our generation is
very advanced in technology and the internet is the very source of most of the students’ information they
share or discuss inside the classroom, it has a sense of compatibility. But does our learnings differ from the
learnings before? The answer would be yes. Today informations can be spread worldwide and can reach
millions of people. Spending half an hour in social media or the online world, you can get almost hundreds of
information. This involves, latest news either facts or fake, latest trend, unknown people, new friends, etc.
The online system encompasses wide varieties of new and trending sources wherein the “netizens” can visit,
follow or subscribe. According to Internet statistics & facts (2019), 63.4 % of all mobile phone users access
internet in 2019 and there are approximately 3.7 billion global mobile internet users at last January 2018. The
global internet users are consist of people in all types, ages, race, and status, and most of them are teenagers
and students.
 Since the internet reaches billions of people who can get informations that may vary from what source
it came from, this can result into a new issue that is called the widespread of fake news. Today, because of
the rise of the online world, it is becoming very hard for people to determine whether a certain news or
information is true or not, that is why there is an increasing number of people who are victims of fake news.
It affects the way we learn because of confusion that can lead into getting the wrong and useless information.
Not being careful of what you read and what you click can have a negative result. You see, in social media if
one posted that the petals of Gumamela can heal cancer without any experiment done or is unproven and it
reaches thousands people that can either react, comment or share your post. In this kind of situation, even
a false claim can be true to thousands of people because of social media or the internet world that is why
nowadays we cannot be sure of what we learn or what we get, we really have to filter every information and
search for evidences before believing.

Technology shifts from complex into simple but the main target is to make life easy. Making life easy
will result into lesser effort and work from us. In learning, the mere fact that students are using technologies
and the internet, the more they get timid about their duties. Technology sometimes produces laziness and if
not prevented, can result into distraction from what should be done. Spending too much time in gadgets while
accessing the internet can lead students to focus more on entertainment rather than academic purposes. If
the students are not well taught in the utilization of the technologies then definitely they will all face a sad
reality. Technologies are intended to help us, not to destroy us, it’s up to us how will we use it according to
our needs because too less results into ignorance and too much results into destruction.

If technology hinder the learnings of the student then it must be prohibited but if it really helps then
students must be well guided in how to use it. We cannot avoid the changes happening in our world, the only
thing that we can do is how do we embrace and accept it. Are we aware of the fact that the online world
already became the bridge into the spread of different learnings? Our Lady of Fatima University is one of the
best example wherein they created the university as a technology friendly environment that will help students
into their learnings. The rise tower for example is built having different technologies and machineries
integrated with each other. Other buildings are composed of televisions and glass boards.
 Technology in education is the biggest change in teaching we will ever see. For years, policy makers,
teachers, parents and students alike have been weighing the potential benefits of technology in education
against its risks and consequences. Digital education is generating new learning opportunities as students
engage online, digital environments and as faculty change educational practices through the use of hybrid
courses, personalized instruction, new collaboration models and a wide array of innovative, engaging
learning strategies. Furthermore, a 21st century view of learner success requires students to not only be
thoughtful consumers of digital content, but effective and collaborative creators of digital media,
demonstrating competencies and communicating ideas through dynamic storytelling, data visualization and
content curation. (Himmelsbach, 2019)

Indeed technology provides a change that can lead into more opportunities for learners to learn in
an innovative way but we all have to be careful with these changes because not everything is helpful. There
must still be the involvement of the students in learning and not just solely rely on technological advancement
to avoid the laziness of students. Technologies are just considered as guide for students, if we understand
better the advantages and disadvantages of using it then we can build a better environment not just for the
students but also to the teachers to be also inspired in teaching with the aid of technology. There is no
problem with the advancement of technology as long as we know our priorities.
Technology and The Past (interview)

Name: Yolanda Gariendo Guevara

Age: 65

Question no. 1: Do you think technologies are important in your generations back then?

“Hindi, hindi masyado kasi hindi pa naman uso noon yung mga ginagamit at kinakalikot niyo ngayon eh ng
mga kabataan. Nabuhay naman kami ng wala ng mga mayroon kayo ngayon at nakakamiss yung mga dating
panahon na nagsusulatan pa para makapagusap, yung mga telegrama na barok barok yung salita kasi pag
mas mahaba eh mas mahal ang bayad. Siguro importante na rin noon yung mga yan pero hindi kasing
importante ngayon kasi sa generation niyo, mabitawan niyo lang yang mga cellphone niyo ng saglit eh parang
wala na kayo sa mundo niyo. Dati kasi choice mo lang ang paggamit ng mga ganyan ganyan eh ngayon
parang kailangan na kailangan na talaga ng lahat.”

Question no. 2: Do you think that having the same kind of technology as what we have in this generation
into your generation would affect your lifestyle?

“Aba siguro oo, kasi pag may teknolohiya mas mabilis ang buhay eh. Dati kasi sa panahon naming mabagal
ang buhay, naeenjoy naming ang bawat oras. Eh ngayon kasi dahil jan sa mga gadget gadget na yan,
napapabilis ang takbo ng buhay. Siguro kung ganyan kami noon hindi naming matututunan maging mapagtiis
atsaka mapagtimpi. Kaya mas advantage pa rin talaga yung mga hindi masyadong naka experience ng mga
ganyang meron kayo ngayon.”

Question no. 3: What is the one important thing or lesson you have learned that our technology wouldn’t
teach us?
“yun siguro yung pagiging matiisin o yung patience, kasi napapansin ko sa mga kabataan ngayon, and iiksi
na ng pasensya, parang mauubusan ng oras. Yun nga ang madalas na sinasabi sa mga kabataan ngayon
na masyado nga daw nagmamadali sa buhay na hindi naman dapat kasi ang buhay dapat ginagamit yan
para makamit mo yung purpose mo at matupad mo yung mga pangarap mo, pero kung wala kang mahabang
pasensya mahihirapan ka hindi ba?”

Question no. 4: What would you choose, the traditional way of communicating or the “TECHY” way?

“kasi magkaiba sila eh, yung sa ngayon kasi mas madali kasi isang text mo lang okay na eh. Dati kasi
kailangan mo pang sumulat tapos magantay ng ilang araw para malaman mo kung ano yung reply nya.
Siguro pareho naman silang may kagandahan at benepisyo pero totoo naman ang sinasabi nila na mas
madali ngayon lalo pa at pag may mga emergency di ba? Madali ka lang maka contact sa pamilya mo.”

Question no. 5: If you would have the chance to change what is happening now in the new era of
technology, what message will you give?

“Pagaaral. Asikasuhin nila at wag pababayaan ang pagaaral, wag gawing distraction yang mga social media
nay an atsaka yang mga gadget na yan, dapat gamitin nila yan para matulungan sila sa pagaaral nila. Okay
lang naman yang mga pagusbong ng mga gadget na yan basta alam lang ng mga kabataan kung ano ang
dapat nilang unahin atsaka mahalaga ang makatapos ng edukasyon kasi yan lang ang babauinin nila habang
buhay. Yang mga cellphones na yan pwedeng manakaw yan pero ang mga natutunan mo, hindi.”