This is the second year now that we have had to do the one things that not many people look forward to. Writing an essay. Recently we were tasked with completing an essay in class on the topic of disruption. Disruption has been the theme for term two this year and writing an essay on it would not be easy.
At the beginning of the term we started to read a book called Little Brother. This book was about a terrorist attack on the city of San Francisco and the aftermath that followed. As part of our essay we were to include this book at some time while we were writing it. The main question that we had to answer in the essay was, how has technology acted as a disruption throughout history?
We had just gotten back from a trip to California so we also had to use a lot of the info that we learned and saw there knot the essay as well. This really made everything come together in the essay and make our argument strong. We also included information that we had learned through regular school work as well. Using the information that we know about WW1 and newer things like computer companies and electronics manufacturers we had a lot of information with us when we wrote the essay.
When we had to write an outline before the essay I tried to include all of the topics that I would be talking about in my essay. The points that I wanted to make to the reader was how technology has been innovating, destroying and innovating people and many parts of the world for years and years. Some of the things that I used to get these points across was World War 1, new Apple products and Google Maps. But instead of me talking about here you can just read it.
Synthesis essay
Technology is one of the key factors that makes our world function the way it does today. It has done many good things for the world throughout history, but has it all been good for the world? Has technology always been for the better of the world? How has technology acted as a disruption throughout history? Technology has been the perhaps one of the most disruptive things that we humans have evolved for centuries. In short it all hasn’t been good. There were many bad things that have come from technology but those are greatly outnumbered by all the good it has done to us. Technology is constantly innovating every year to make the old technology inferior and eventually irrelevant. People have been constantly destroying parts of the world using technology, by causing different things like global warming and wars. Finally, technology has been influencing people’s everyday lives for years and years. Technology has acted as a disruption throughout history by innovating, destroying and influencing many parts of the world and the people that live on it.
Every year the new iPhone comes out, or the newest smart TV from Samsung. Of course many consumers wants these brand new products and cannot wait to get their hands on them. But what does this do to the old technology that they had before? How does this new technology effect the old? Well, in short it renders the old technology out of date and useless compared to the new technology. Most of this new technology is much better in many ways compared to the older versions. For example, most phones are better for the environment because they are smaller and use less batteries and the technology inside of them is smaller and much more powerful. Also, many new cars manufactured today are much more efficient than they used to be with respect to the amount of gas they use. Some cars don’t use gas at all now and only use electricity. This is much better for the environment and does render the old gas guzzling cars out of date and much worse for the environment . All of this is changing the world constantly and we as humans have to adapt to the new ways that technology makes us. We are forced into doing things differently, things that we would not have done before now become the new way to do it and we soon get used to doing things that way until the new technology comes out and the process repeats itself. Technology that is constantly innovating also causes us, as people, to constantly innovate and try different things because that is how we survive in the world that we live in today. With all of this innovation there are many things that change for the worst and this causes destruction around the world.
As well as being one of the most helpful forces in the world today, throughout history technology has also caused the most destruction around the world. Some of these examples are wars, such as WW1, global warming and even terrorist attacks that take place in today’s world. The destruction from WW1 was caused by the technology at the time, such as new tanks and more advanced weapons, and global warming is an ongoing problem that will get much worse over the next few years. During the time of WW1 technology had advanced more then any other point in history. Unfortunately a lot of the technology was created for destruction and the world suffered a great deal at that time and it took years and years to recover. Global warming is something that is very slow and gradual but is there all of the time. The greenhouse gasses emitted by all of the factories and cars in the world is causing the ozone layer around the world to slowly disintegrate. This lets more solar rays to get into the earth’s atmosphere, which heats up the planet, changing the environment and destroying habitats , eventually causing problems for a lot of people around the world. Terrorists around the world are using technology in different ways to try and harm and disrupt the normal way of things in many countries. The most common way that they are using to strike fear into people is using bombs that they create and blow up in a crowded area or a place of significance to the people that live there. In the book Little Brother a terrorist attack is triggered at the bay bridge in California and the whole city goes into a lockdown phase. The government then uses the technology they have to try and manage and control the people that are in California. This is just one example of how technology is used for destruction around the world and while this was fiction it is definitely something that could happen in real life.
Another huge part of the book Little Brother was how the kids in it felt like they were forced into action after constantly being managed and oppressed by the government. This influences the kids to make their own space where they can do and say what they want to. This is just one of the examples in the book that demonstrates how technology influences people’s choices. This happens in the real world as well, most of the time they are small things and do not have a very big effect on people. Things like changing your route on the way to work because Google Maps told you to or going to Subway instead of McDonalds because of that new sandwich advertisement you saw on TV that morning are all examples of how technology influences people these days. At the other extreme, in WW1 with the development of planes and tanks, technology completely changed the way that war was fought. This new technology influenced the generals’ decisions on how they would attack or defend from the enemy. All of these are real life things that happen or have happened throughout history. I’m sure that as technology continues to develop over the next few decades the amount that it influences our decisions will increase a great deal and continue influence us more and more with our daily life.
Technology is a huge part of our world today. Without it I think that many people, if not all, would be clueless on how to help themselves. It is constantly changing and new innovative technology is coming out every single year to help us with our lives. At the same time, is a huge destructive force that might never stop destroying the world, and it is constantly influencing our everyday decisions to try and make our lives easier. While it is not always a good thing technology will always be with us in ways that most of us take for granted. I think that technology is a very good thing to have around as long as we know what we are doing with it and make sure that we are using it for good things as much as possible. We can only imagine what technology will be like in the future but I hope it is something that we can trust and use without too many negative consequences.
Another big part of the unit was a disruption video that me and my partner made on a topic in California. Our topic was the USS midway and our task was to show how it has been a disruption to the world. The video was something that required lots of filming and interviews of people there and we were sure to get everything that we needed. During the video we also learned a lot about how the Midway affected the people on it as well as the world.
This essay was something that I was not looking forward at first but once I started to write it I really got into a flow with it and began to like writing it. The final product is something that I think really represents the things I learned during the unit. Essay’s are definitely something that I like to do more than regular school work because it requires a lot more writing which is something I like to do. I need to keep on improving my writing and keep proofreading all of the things I do because it will help in the future with longer and harder writing assignments.