The Correlation between My Daily Life and Technology

04 Sep 2020

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Technology in Our Lives

I wake up every morning listening to the sound of my phone alarm. Looking at the phone screen displaying “10 o'clock on September 4, 2020”, I decided to look back at my relationship with technology.
Exactly how dependent are we to our smartphones? From the moment we wake up we need the help of our daily alarm. While mobile phones, with call and text message function, were regarded as a means of communication, smartphones quickly dominated and penetrated our lifestyle since the first release 10 years ago.
There are many reasons behind such a conquest, yet I believe it mainly had to do with ‘applications’. Numerous applications developed and created new technology through fusing with existing technologies in various fields including finance, social media, and transportation. As a result, tasks that would normally take different devices, can now be done in a sitting position and with a smartphone only. We are now in an environment where we cannot live without the help of smartphone technology.


Though I am now taking online classes through the Zoom app due to COVID-19, even before, applications were involved in my way to offline classes. Rather than waiting for a bus, by using a real-time bus guidance system application, I could find out when the bus is arriving. When looking back, this is a huge development from the time when technology such as GPS and transportations such as buses existed separately.
The convergence of these two technologies has maximized each characteristic to establish a stronger relationship with our life.






Arriving at McDonald’s for lunch, I normally use a ‘drive-thru’. It’s method is ordering and picking up the food without having to get off the vehicle. Fast food has emerged in response to the demand for quick and convenient meals in busy modern life. This also is an example of technology development that has greatly influenced our society.
McDonald's employees communicate with customers through headsets and microphones installed in the vehicle's ordering area. When orders are entered into the device, the details are passed on to the employees, then the food can be prepared and checked out by the customers.
All of this is done with the help of technology. Development of this technology has made it possible to serve food faster and more accurately without entering the store directly to order. This “drive-thru” technology, which exactly faces the purpose of fast food, is increasingly spreading and can be found not only in fast food restaurants but also in coffee shops today.

Conclusion

I realized that the relationship between technology and society is not simply a general-passive relationship in which the development of technology affects society, but a two-way relationship in which a specific atmosphere or demand of society affects the development of new technologies.