GRE Issue Topic 125

Sample 1:

Philosophers such as John Stuart Mill and Karl Marxbelieved that the primary objective of technology should be to increase the leisure time of the people. This increased leisure time could be invested in social, creative and intellectual pursuits all of which have an ability to galvanize our lives. While there is no doubt that means of communications have proliferated, in my view the advent of technology has resulted in a reduction both in the time and quality of our interactions. Productivity has become the yardstick to measure all our activities leaving fewer opportunities to develop or sustain social bonds.

According to ancient philosophers leisure meant a freedom from the routine and mechanical lifestyle and the belief was that technology would help transform this and provide people with free time for more creative and intellectual pursuits. As per them this free time was best utilized in cogitating and discussing about the purpose of life and seeking by ourselves and through our interaction with others to determine our own individual desires from life, unfettering us from the established norms and adding a richness in our activities and personalities.

While technological innovations such as the automobile and computer have helped us speed up our activities considerably, we are much further from the ideal notion of leisure than our ancestors. Leisure has become a pejorative and is only justified if it is adding to the amount of work one is doing. Working holidays have replaced holidays, and thanks to smart phones and connectivity people are expected to be available at all times. Families are spending far lesser time communicating with each other with each member of the household being occupied with one or another form of technology – from computers, to laptop, to smart phones and TV. Family values are falling apart and divorce rates are significantly going up.

While in medieval times too people worked from morning to evening, work was more causal and people took off time for social chats and interactions. However in today’s age, sophisticated technology like access cards and employee logs are employed to monitor employee activities and to ensure that time is productively invested. The bonds in earlier times were more personal with face-to-face conversations being the norm instead of communication largely through gadgets and software. These new mediums have lead to dehumanizing of communication. A renowned scientist and philosopher noted that information technology supplies communication canned or frozen and can in no way match the art of dialogue characterized by both words as well as silence. Advent of platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Skype and instant messaging services like Blackberry messenger, Gtalk have undoubtedly given as an opportunity to stay in touch with friends and family residing miles away from us or reconnect with those we had lost touch with, these interactions can at best be described as superficial and people feeling more lonely and vacuumed than before.

To take a slightly tangential view, proliferation of media technologies has also impacted the time people take out for themselves and their families. Stories of the rich and successful having 20 hour days with each minute being invested in work related activities, mails and texts from colleagues late into the night or in the wee hours of the morning, global alliances which require people from all parts of the world to work according to the time of the client; have all created a sense of insecurity amongst people. Today we are not only expected to be available, but ourselves wish to be available at all times in order not to be left behind. This has further put pressure on the time one spends in interacting with others.

To summarize, while the function of technology should no doubt be an increase in leisure time helping us enrich our social bonds, in truth technology has lead us further away from this end.