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Science, Technology and Change

There is no dispute over the fact that technology brings far reaching and fundamental changes in our social set up. Our modern society is the outcome and product of modern technology.

It is due to technological advancement that we come closer to each other and our way of living, thinking and behaving has changed. Technology has helped considerably in urbanizing our society.

Every technological invention changes the very outlook of our life. Division of labor, trade unionism and specialization that are quite common these days are rapidly influencing and changing the social order are the outcome of advancement of technology. In the words of Ogburn technology changes society by changing our environment to which we in turn adopt. This change is usually in material environment and the adjustment we make to the changes often modify customs and social consequences are the technological result of technological change such as new organization of labor, the expansion of the range of social contacts, the specialization of function and the encroachment of urban influences on rural life.

Today there is no aspect of human life that has not been influenced by technology. Therefore technology is very important factor of social change. In the words of Maclver and Page the rapid changes of our society are obviously related to and somewhat dependent upon the development of new techniques, new inventions and new methods of production, new standards of living. The most novel and pervasive phenomenon of our age is not capitalism but mechanization of which modern capitalism may be merely a by-product.

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