The Effects of Technology

Technology has been developing for thousands of years. Our daily lives and communication styles have been affected by technological innovations, such as the computer, Internet, the cell phone, television, airplane and radio.
They have positive and negative impacts on the way people communicate. Nowadays, there are many ways in which people can get in touch with others, including cell phone, e-mail, text messaging, social network, and instant messaging. Each of them has its own specific features on how to use the language. Whether these new communication tools are useful or not depends on a person who use them. Most people think that a revolution in communication is an advantage whereas some others believe that it is annoying. The appropriate usage of these new technologies can make a deep and lasting impression on people. On the other hand, if they are not used fittingly, people might find themselves in uncomfortable situations. These new technologies have been changing the way I have been communicating with others as well as my daily life. I have been affected by mostly information and communication, transportation and cell phone technologies. 

The Internet is one of the most popular technologies in information and communication technologies. It provides many opportunities to communicate with others. There are many different kinds of instant message services, such as Skype, Yahoo, and Msn. In addition to these, there are also many social networks, such as Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter. I have been using most of them. The spoken language and the academic language that I use and the language that I use for instant messaging and other social networks are totally different. Generally, when I talk to my friends on the Internet, I do not use formal language. There are many abbreviations. For instance, instead of using “you”, “why”, and “what”, I only use “u”, “y”, and “wht”. In addition, I can see the person to whom I talk on Skype, Yahoo or MSN messenger. One instance of this is that before I came to the U.S., my mother was not worried for not seeing me for a long time because she knew that she would see me on the Internet. It makes long distances short. 

Developments in technology play a very important role in shaping transportation systems that help to form our lives, culture, and countries. There are many vehicles, such as trains, airplanes, buses, and cars that serve people who commute from one place to another. Highway engineers have developed traffic lights, interchanges, and a thousand other design and control systems to keep traffic moving. One example of this is that traffic lights can recognize cars and switch automatically to speed up traffic. For example, before I came to the U.S., I had not known that the traffic lights could automatically regulate the traffic. After my brother picked me up from the airport, we were going home. We stopped at a traffic light, but it suddenly changed. When I asked him why it had changed quickly, he told me that traffic lights could recognize cars, and if there was no car around, it allowed you to pass. I was impressed by this technology. I think if developments in technology continue to grow very quickly, we will not need manpower anymore. 

Cell phones are one of the most important innovations that serve the needs of daily life. I remember my first cell phone. It was very huge in comparison to current cell phones. At that time, communication with cell phones was very expensive. I could not use text messages as I wanted. However, after other cell phone services started to serve, I was able to send unlimited text messages. Today, developments in cell phone technology allow us even to access the Internet and to do whatever we want. I can check my emails, shop online, access social networks and I can even do face to face communication through a cell phone. The usage of cell phone has become very popular because of its easy and practical functions. 

In short, technological developments bring great benefits to our daily lives. Communication, transportation and cell phone technologies provide an easy life to people. The most important benefit of these technologies is to prevent time spending.