Notion: idea of progess

Notion: idea of progess

I'm going to talk about the idea of progress.

First I would like to give a definiton of this notion: the idea of progress can be defined as an improvement, a development or a change technical, scientific or social advance which contributes to making the world a better place.

This year in class we studied serval documents about this and in particular the impact of tecnologiy on our daily lives with three documents. The first is a text named  “Dies the fire”, the second is a video called “The Blackout” and the last is an article called “Students unplug”.

So I'm going to ask me how is possble to live without tecnology.

The first document is about a world where the technology has disparead. In fact Dies the Fire takes place in a time when an unknown phenomenon called “The Change” permanently disables most forms of modern technology such as electricity, including computers, electronics, guns, cars... One day, in the tiny hamlet between the junction of Lochia and Clearwater, a used to be a plasant place, some travellers in search a place where to settle, arrived.

The second document evoke the downsides of a life without technology with the Blackout who affected California, Arizona and Mexico in September 2011. Many cities were left in total darkness because they were deprived of electricity. The consequences of this Blackout were various : a problem with traffic jam, no traffic light, problems in hospitals... This has affected millions of people and the people feeling are mixed. Some people think that's horrible and that they can't live without technlologies while others think that it will make them go out more often and live without being able to live normally.

The last document is about the week withou technology in Lincoln High School. During this week, students had to unplug all electronic devices. An english teacher had the idea for let students to think about the world and to be aware of the impact of technology on the society. The result of this experience was quite mixed. Although it was eye-opening and allows them to think about how dependent they were. Most of them will go back to usual way of living, like a girl who says that she was very anxioux to miss something important.

To conclude, I think we can't live without a minimum of technology as evidenced by the Blackout, but we do not have to be dependent. Technology is there and makes something easier doesn't mean we should rely on it so much that we can't think for ourselves.  And this is the problem of my generation, because we were born with technology so we are dependent on it and we don't think without technology. It's necessary to find a balance because life without technology is impossible once it has access, but addiction is not an obligation.

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