The 20th Century

Question: Write an essay on the 20Th century. Answer: Introduction The 20Th century, has seen various kinds of technological advancements. Countries like, America, Europe as well as many countries of East Asia has enjoyed the advance kind of material and technological advancement that was almost impossible in the eras before. (Alexandropoulos et al.) The main reason behind this was that of the basic benefits of capitalism was spreading in an alarming rate in the population. The World War II had a great effect on certain industries. The rate of productivity of various goods was made better in quality as well as cheaper in rate. Things like, travelling in a jet plane, long distance phone calls that were once treated as a luxury, suddenly became the necessity. Technology and Happiness In respect to happiness, it has been seen that, in respect to the standard of living, A recent survey has shown that the percentage of people, who says that they are happy has alarmingly fallen down since the early 1970s (Bjrn-Andersen and Rasmusse). The best example of this situation can be given by the country Japan. From the period of 1960s to the late 1980s, it has been found that the economy of Japan, has transformed to a great level. The country has turned out to be the worlds technologically advanced society from a nation that used to be the supplier of cheap manufactured articles. Consequently, the overall GDP of the country has increased five times than before. Despite of that, most of the Japanese are complaining that they were far happier in the 1960s than they are now (Brer et al) A close study of the matter has seen that the relationship between both technology as well as happiness has proved to be a major criterion for all the social critics as well as the philosophers, since the time of Industrial Revolution. In addition, the number of social scientist and economist has not examined it. The relationship between material prosperity and well-being has been greatly involved in the subject of happiness. Economist like Alois Stutzer and Bruno Frey had published an academic survey on the subject of Happiness and Economics in the year 2001. Nevertheless, if we go back to the year, 1974, economist Richard Easterlin, had already written in this topic, titled as Does Economic Growth Improve the Human Lot? According to Easterlin, in the developed countries, there is actually no relation between the income levels of the nation with that of the happiness of the citizens. According to the view of Easterlin, money could not actually buy happiness for any person. He also s howed that poverty is very much co-related to misery. It has also been seen that a country which was once middle-class, when gets enough money, the citizens are not enough happy. At least they were far happier in their older conditions. (Godwin-Jones and Robert) The work of Easterlin did not get that much of popularity in its initial stage. Nevertheless, the implication of those ideas gained much popularity. After suggesting that there has been no direct connection between wealth and wellbeing, Easterlin had actually challenged the basic assumptions of the mainstream economics. Well-being is said to be the basic idea of economics, as said by Alan Krueger, who is an economist at Princeton University. Technology and Future The idea of how technology affects the well-being of any person, gives certain basic ideas that truly depends on certain basic ideas. Various studies show relation between technology and the persons reaction to it (Frankenstein et al). Thus, the basic idea remains the same that whether technology has the ability to make people happy. Another, important aspect is that the uncertainty of people, that accounts the state of their mind. To think about technology is hard just because people adapt to the technologies more only to them that are available to them. In the late 1870s, people were very much happy if they were given the opportunity to fly across the ocean, or in a very small span of time, and also given the chance to speak to people who were about thousand miles away, they would definitely say yes to it. It was the reason that they had very little access to all these in those days. However, in todays modern generation will rarely get excited about cars, planes, or telephones. Modern generation easily recognizes the utility of those materials. Still they are regarded as the sources of both frustration and stress (Meilinger et al). Another very important note to be taken that people mostly gets excited after getting good news. If we take the example of lottery winners, it has been seen that they were extremely happy when they won the game, their moods and the sense of well-being, was very much undistinguishable, from that of they were before. This can be termed as an adaption of hedonism. The most striking impact of technology is on the well-being of the people. It has been seen that before the occurrence of Industrial Revolution, three out of every four European used to die before crossing the age bar of 30. However, if we compare that to the present years we will find that the life expectancy of Europeans is almost the age of 80. Conclusion Technology means improvement. Our fast absorption of technology has obviously resulted to progress. Modern techniques sometimes makes the life even worse than before. If we consider the new technologies, which can be based on the evidence and it also involves the future indirectly. According to the modern critiques of technology, it has been found that, the technological progress is becoming more and more rigid, controlled and to the society. References Alexandropoulos, Dimitris I., et al. "Emissive molecular nanomagnets: introducing optical properties in triangular oximato {Mn III 3} SMMs from the deliberate replacement of simple carboxylate ligands with their fluorescent analogues."Dalton Transactions43.5 (2014): 1965-1969. (Alexandropoulos et al.) Bjrn-Andersen, N., and L. B. Rasmussen. 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