Week 5 blog - "Economy & Technology" / posted by So Jeong Yeon (연소정)

1. Introduction

 

In this week’s lecture, we learned about “Economy and Technology.”

In the first class of this week, we learned about “Economy” through sociological lenses. On the next day, we looked into “Technology and our lives.”

 

Some people wonder how related economy is to technology. To be honest with you, I was one of them. Even though I knew, I just knew them separately or vaguely knew the relationship between the two. But after this week’s classes, I got to know more accurately than before. From now on, I’ll talk about what I learned and interesting items.

 

 

 

2. What I learned & My opinion of  the question

 

 

Economy refers to the ways people use their environment to meet their material needs. It includes the production, exchange, distribution, and consumption of goods and services of a country or other area. Like as Culture and Religion, Economy is one of a number of forces affecting the society and our lives. Technology is one of the major economic factors of production. There are other factors: capital, labor and entrepreneurship.

 

While I took the class I was interested in how the technology affects our lives- especially socio-economic aspects. Let’s think about the influence of technology on our lives through ‘3D printing.’

 

 

Q. How will the technology change our lives in the future?

 

 

We watched and discussed the short documentaries on 3D printing. And we thought about some questions- 1) what is most surprising? 2) what does it tell us about how our lives will change in the future?

 

I was so surprised that the speaker’s argument is different from the generally accepted meanings. Most people think the development of technology results in the increase in unemployment. Because the technology enables factory automation and mass production. So they concerned that machines replace human labor in many industries. However, the speaker said that rather technology such as 3D printing can make many jobs. Because 3D printing enables product to be made to measure- personalization. He said it's going to usher in a new era of localized, distributed manufacturing that is actually based on digital fabrication.

 

The new era that he said is very impressive for me. I thought the product made by 3D printing is a combination of mass production and customization. After watching that video, I realized that the advance of technology can stimulate the creation of jobs when the technology is combined with personalization.

 

 

 

3. Conclusion 

  

Our society is shaped by technology in many ways. We always use technology when we use smartphones and SNS. We even use technology when we eat, sleep, work and so on. It is not too much to say that we can’t live without technology.

 

I think the technology make our lives rich by providing convenience to people. But at the same time we have to think carefully about side effects which technology may cause. As the speaker said, 3D printing has advantages. It can make artificial organs and create many jobs. But it also cause side effects such as illegal reproduction.
Therefore, when we understand the influence of technology on our lives or when we develop and use technology, we should consider both the pros and cons.