Modern Information Technology Impacts Our Everyday Lives Essay Example for Free

Modern Information Technology Impacts Our Everyday Lives Essay Over the past 20 years, the world as we know has changed drastically. We have moved from a world that was bound by wires and copper cabling to a world that offers any bit of information you want with the touch of a glass screen from a device that fits in your pockets. In this same period of time, shopping used to involve planning a trip to a brick and motor store and hope they had the product you were looking for, and at the price you wanted to pay. If you lived in a small market, you didn’t have the choices to comparison shop other stores. In today’s age, a consumer can shop from the comfort of their home, and find exactly the right product at exactly the right price. With a click of a mouse and a charge of a credit card, the product will be rushed to the consumer’s house with little to no effort for them. Large retailers like Amazon.com can have a product delivered to a consumer by as early as the next day! This type of convenience has changed our daily ways in many ways, both positive and negative. For example, people can communicate with each other miles apart from their computers and smart phones via email and texting. While some may say this is good thing that allowing distant relatives and friends quick and simple communication without worrying about distance, others would say that email and texting simply takes a lot of the personal touch from the conversation. With retailers moving their sales online, some people believe that the personal touch of being able to talk to someone directly about the product may detract from the experience. Positive Impacts of Modern Technology We should begin looking at the positive impacts that this new technology has on our daily lives. Technology is evolving very quickly, and sometimes consumers have a hard time keeping up with the latest trends, but the impacts are made every day to help improve our lives. Whether we are using computers to communicate by video conferencing with friends and family in another country, or ordering the latest Harry Potter book to be instantly delivered to our Kindles, these technologies are enriching our lives. As retailers move to the web, consumers are able to comparison shop many different sellers with the click of a mouse. There are also dedicated websites out there that allow a consumer to instantly search for a product from hundreds of sellers, and then find the one that has the lowest price and best shipping. On top of this, the internet provides a way for consumers to research the products they are buying. We can look up reviews from other buyers to see if the product lives up to manufacturers claims. When a consumer decides what and where they will buy, they can have the product whisked away from the distribution center and be delivered on their doorstep by the end of the next day, all from the computer of their home. With the massive explosion of social media sites, people are able to find and communicate with their long lost friends and family all from a central location. We can share photos, send messages, and chat in real time with our connections. Although the entertainment industry has been slow to adopt the new technologies in fear of losing money to â€Å"pirates†, we have seen a huge growth of online video. Consumers are able to find and watch their favorite shows whenever and wherever they like. Television sets are now shipping with built in internet connectivity to allow purchasers to access the internet to watch videos and share photos with one another. Companies like Netflix and Hulu have embraced online streaming and are offering thousands of hours of online video for a very low monthly subscription. These services are not limited to just televisions either. Computers, smart phones, and tablets are all easily able to access this same content for on-the-go watching. Online gaming has become huge in the past few years as well. People can play against each other in massive online role playing games such as World of Warcraft, and even console makers such as Microsoft and Sony have enabled their gaming consoles for online play. This brings the world together as a playing field and we are no longer constrained by our living room when it comes to finding new opponents. With the help of Google, people are now able to research topics in record time. With a few keystrokes, users are able to find information on any topic under the sun. Online search engines allow us to research the world’s libraries and other research facilities. We are also able to scour the web for information. This makes student homework much simpler and faster, and allows them to learn more information quicker. Data organization has also become a simpler task thanks to modern technology. Companies can store their entire repository of data onto a simple database server. They can query this server for any bit of information they need within a few seconds. Not only beneficial for companies, home users are able to store their personal documents and photos securely on their PC’s as well as in an off-site â€Å"cloud† and not have any fear of losing this information when a natural disaster occurs. Negative Impacts of Modern Technology While there are many positive impacts on today’s society, there are also many negatives that are introduces as well. Many would argue that there are jobs being lost because of this new technology. Automated and robotic systems have taken the place of humans in the work force. With retailers moving their sales operations online, they no longer need the support staff for their brick and motor stores. Many stores are not able to keep up with the low prices from the mega-retailers online, so they are forced to close down. With the influx of social media as our main communication medium, some think that we have lost the personal touch of spending time with our close friends and family in favor of sitting behind our computers online. People that are only using social media as their main form of communication could lose the ability to interact physically with one another. The many distractions of email notifications and incoming text messages have also become a detractor. People no longer consider it rude to stop in the middle of a conversation to respond to a text message that has just come in to their phone. This could lead to low levels of concentration. At the same time, malicious people have found easy ways to target those that are online. With the vast amount of spam email and harmful virus spreading around the world, more and more people are becoming susceptible to attack. Another negative impact is the illegal use of technology for gambling and other addicting habits. Online gambling sites attract millions of people per day and can completely consume those with weak will power, leading to distressed families and financial means. Underground websites also harbor criminalist activities as well. Pornography and child pornography are trafficked daily on the internet, and the sheer magnitude of the web makes it hard for authorities to track down and eliminate. There are even websites such as TheSilkRoad that sell illegal drugs in the same fashion as Amazon sells normal goods! In Summary Although we cannot stop the negative effects from this new technology, we shouldn’t fear it. Learning to recognize the potential positive impacts this new technology can bring to our lives while at the same time recognizing the potential threats we will be better able to adapt to them and take advantages and enrichments they bring to our daily lives.

Hunger in Richard Wrights Black Boy :: Wright Black Boy Essays

Hunger in Black Boy Have you ever experienced real hunger? The kinds of hungers that Richard experiences in Black Boy are not evident in the society where you and I reside. The present middle class citizens cannot really relate to true physical hunger. Hunger for most of us is when there is nothing that we desire to eat around the house and therefore skip one meal. This cannot even compare to the days that Richard endures without food. Physical hunger, however, is not the only hunger apparent in Richard's life. Richard suffers from emotional and educational hungers as well. He yearns for such things as mere association with others and simple books to read. Both of which are things that most people take for granted. This efficacious autobiography, Black Boy, by Richard Wright manifests what it is like to desire such simple paraphernalia. From a very early age and for much of his life thereafter, Richard experiences chronic physical hunger. "Hunger stole upon me slowly that at first I was not aware of what hunger really meant. Hunger had always been more or less at my elbow when I played, but now I began to wake up at night to find hunger standing at my bedside, staring at me gauntly" (16). Soon after the disappearance of Richard's father, he begins to notice constant starvation. This often reappears in his ensuing life. The type of hunger that Richard describes is worse than one who has not experienced chronic hunger can even imagine. "Once again I knew hunger, biting hunger, hunger that made my body aimlessly restless, hunger that kept me on edge, that made my temper flare, that made my temper flare, hunger that made hate leap out of my heart like the dart of a serpent's tongue, hunger that created in me odd cravings" (119). Because hunger has always been a part of Richard's lifestyle, he cannot even imagine eating meat every day. This simple privilege would be a miracle to him, yet to most it is nothing. These weakening and piercing hungers are frequently evident where poverty dwells in the Jim Crow South. Furthermore, emotional hunger also represses much of Richard's life. Richard desires attention from people. However, since he does not

Latin American Art Essay

Art is a form of expression. Paintings are a form of visual art. Artists are the creators of visual forms of communication and their art works speak out what is in their hearts and minds. Art in any form, music, sculpture or dance is nonetheless a language of the soul of the artist. Art of a period is a depiction and impact of the social, political, religious, cultural, traditional, geographical and social system prevalent at the time. Like the transformation of a person through circumstances and experience, paintings too exhibit change in their character in form, subject, and choice of colors, technique and style. Latin American art grew through the age of ancient folklore, to a combination of modernism; to rebel against imperialism, colonialism, terrorism and dominance of the western world ; surpassing the turbulence played by history with the Latin American countries. They were plundered and conquered innumerable times and till today they fight for their identity which is dissolving into the global world. The name of Mexican Artist Diego Rivera is famous as the master of cubism of the early 20 century. His works have gained immense popularity for their modernism and retention of originality. â€Å"Diego was fascinated by the new style of painting led by celebrated Spaniard Pablo Picasso† in the cubist paintings by Diego†¦ so he mastered that style from 1913 and developed it in his later works. The Zapatista Landscape is a painting in the same style. It is a landscape of the city of Zapatista. Juxtaposed with the geographical terrain of Zapatista, are the bold and beautiful pictures of guns, fragments of human features in the backdrop of nature. Bold lines are absent but the distinction of shapes is vivid in the painting. There is an indication of texture but the strokes of the brush are smooth. The landscape showers a powerful beam of bright light from above in the painting. Colors are not representational but expressive. Apt to its time, the landscape breaks rapidly just like the destruction and damage of the culture and traditions at the mercy of those who ruled over them then. The Zapatista landscape, by Diego Rivera, the master of cubism, is my choice because it has a tremendous visual impact and bursts with vibrant colors. The second image of another artist of the period is that of Joaquin Torres Garcia. His abstract metaphysical work captivates the viewer because of its grid shapes and different style. His paintings look like murals on a wall, where geometrical shapes are made to look unique by the effect of metallic colors. Numbers, dimensions and shapes comprise his visual portrayal. Torres Garcia developed his own style called the constructivist Art in the early 20 century. He returned to his roots after several years in Europe and America. A man without any family ties, Joaquin was brave and confident to try out new styles of his own but wanted to preserve the tribal art and geometrical organization of expressions just like the Inca Civilization and Peruvian art. He used the golden mean to express his art. The distinct feature of his paintings is their irregular grid base and the signs embedded into each. His paintings look as though they have been made on walls and not on canvas. The play of light and shade is subtle. His colors are representational but they capture the eye by their abstract subjects. His paintings are very fascinating as we do not understand their theme at first instance. They make you look at them for hours and to penetrate into every detail to understand the interesting message from the mind of Garcia. There is a three dimensional effect but there is no perspective to his paintings. They look flat but the grid looks as though each piece is an embossed metal sheet with figures and forms on it. There is a balance of spatial relationship but no attempt at creating illusions. The luster of metals is an unusual method of Garcia’s works. His creations speak about spirituality, religion, meditation and universality. His deep belief in traditions of ancient civilizations like the Inca, surfaces clearly in his works. They signify the resistance he felt towards the dominance of European art. His works reverberate feelings of identity crisis of the Latin American people and rebellion against the degradation of their culture. His subject is not human forms but a connection to the universe and the eternity of the soul. The marvel of the two different paintings is their diverse subject, theme, style, color schemes and effects. But the message is unmistakably the same. Search of identities! Unity amidst diversity! How do they stand out alone and yet combine to form such a strong pair? The Zapatista by Diego Rivera is like a bright flower struggling for survival and fighting its rough terrain. It evokes a feeling of admiration for an individual’s self esteem. The painting by Joaquin Torres Garcia, with its grid base and earthy metallic colors evokes a respect for some one who is trying to make a place for himself in a world that refuses him the identity and dignity he deserves. Disparity, unrest, between classes of society, in the third world and western countries, the message of rebellion, liberty from suppression by power of education, wealth, industry and might, is the loud and clear evocation of both the works. The Zapatista, Diego’s work promotes a message of patriotism through his painting, while Joaquin achieves it by his systematic grid base in his work. The grid base gives a rational approach to art while the abstract forms connect creativity to the ultimate unknown realms of the Universe. Beautiful landscape of Zapatista projects peace and harmony with its blue sky, brown mountains and green trees but is superimposed by brightly colored pictures of guns and dark suspicious eyes of the innocent citizens, of the revolutionaries who were desperate to break free from the ramshackle of their present. Garcia vividly demarcates visual matter by geometrical grids, blended into abstract forms and Diego uses cubism to arouse feelings in his work. But there is a harmony of thought which binds both these paintings into a single message. That of an uprising surging in the hearts of sensitive people of Latin America and their struggle to retain their identity in the emerging new world. Together they resonate the same ultimate yearning of mankind. To rise up above time and to live up to eternity. Stare at them and they speak out to you. Call you towards them and throw you back if you do not understand the message they are giving. Zapatista landscape beckons all those who have migrated to affluent countries in quest of their unfulfilled dreams. It brings out sighs of nostalgia and tears of rage, betrayal and fear when you look at it. Garcia’s work attracts you like a magnet to metal. The lustrous metallic shine with abstract intriguing signs, get embossed on your mind. They lead you to believe that art and creativity are a science and can be portrayed through numbers. See each one in a different light and when together they tell the same story. Like a newly married couple, coming from two different corners of the world. With two different upbringings but united for life to seek the same purpose. That of procreation. Of giving birth to a new world, full of hope, happiness and universal bliss. Not just for themselves but for the Universe as a whole. Works Cited Diego Rivera (Mexico), Zapatista Landscape, 1915, 29 November 2008. Joaquin Torres-Garcia (Uruguay), Abstract Metaphysical Forms, 1930, 29 November 2008

The Between China Vs. American Child Nurturing Essay

care nurturing differs between China compared to American child nurturing. What are the differences? The focus is on values, punishment, actions, and education. Values help mold the culture and shows how the parent chooses to bring their children up in society. Child care differences show us habits, morals, and the intentions of a child in these cultures which have different effects. We can compare childhood, adolescence, and maturity. Self-conduct and child nurturing differences In American and Chinese culture self-conduct is used to teach children. In the Chinese culture they practice Guan, which is to educate, care, control, support and love. They follow Confucianism, which is criticism to encourage to push them to gain social values. Confucianism is a strict action that is practiced. China continues to make every effort to reach for success. China has high values for individualism and respect of adolescents to others. China always looks toward the future and never lets any short interests interfere with that which they praise and are valued ideas in which made China a secure society and held together for thousands of years. China’s stable society is payable to the way they obey to their future commitments established by discipline practices that were taught at childhood. In the American society we have a solid substructure and legitimacy, which means that everyone has a start on any accomplishments they want to achieve. Child discipline is viewed by being fairShow MoreRelatedAbortion, Good or Bad for Society?3757 Words   |  16 Pagesabortions are caused for a variety of reasons, some in which the fetus does not develop normally, or if the mother has an injury or disorder that would prevent the birth of the child. Most people refer to the naturally occurring abortions as miscarriages. Other abortions are purposely committed to prevent the birth of a child. 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