Industrial Revolution Seminar

Essay by Adinbon2High School, 10th grade December 2008

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Adin BonapartPeriod 7Industrial RevolutionSeminar1. The industrial revolution increased the standards of living in developed nations, it created progress in society and technology. Without the industrial revolution, life would not be as it is today. The industrial revolution created new values and changed the way people lived. It branched and created resources which were influenced and shared by other nations. Increase of population led to more efficient forms of growing food and mking other necessities like clothing. These new processes created new jobs and revolutionized economies. One process created by the Industrial Revolution was the assembly line. With the assembly line, goods were made faster and sold for cheaper. The economy adopted very capitalistic values as competition for money arose. Industrial Revolution brought new values such as education, worker’s unions, and easier forms of living. It also created a middle class.

'ThePlaz' "The Many Benefits of the Industrial Revolution." 17 Aug. 2007. 20 Oct. 2008 http://theplaz.com/wiki/index.php?title=image:“the_many_benefits_of_the_industrial_revolution”_brochure_copy.doc2. Is the Internet vital to our lives? NO, humans have lived, prospered, and advanced without the use of the Internet until now. The massive web that connects us all, which we call the Internet, has many practical uses. We use it to communicate, entertain, and to learn. It is very handy for everyday use and society has begun to structure itself around it. Almost every part of our lives can be, in some way, affected (assisted, changed, hurt) by the internet. We have created a virtual world in which we can completely immerse ourselves if we choose to do so. We created it, so it isn’t natural and if it’s not natural, our bodies may not be able to handle some of its affects. I am not talking only about the potentially dangerous physical radiation that we surround ourselves in daily and attacks our bodies on a cellular level, but also mentally. Something that is unnatural and potentially dangerous to us is not a vital part of our lives. Studies like the one AMY HARMON (New York times) writes about show that Internet Use is Linked to the Decline in Mental Well-Being. There has been evidence that the dependency on this unnatural virtual world, can be damaging to mental health. The internet takes us out of the real world and “plugs us in” to an artificial world. The consequences of being “plugged in” for too long can result in damaging affects to people’s social and physical well being, people can loose communication skills and such. So my answer is no, the internet is just an alternate way of communication with other people, when it is abused or when it replaces aspects of ‘real life’ it can be potentially damaging and ordangerous.

Gofman, M.D., Ph.D., John W. "Answers to Frequently-Asked-Questions about "Radiation"" 1997. CNR. 20 Oct. 2008 .

Harmon, Amy. "Internet Use Linked to Decline in Mental Well-Being." New York Times.

3. I believe that technology is harming our lives today. The purpose of technology is to make certain aspects of our lives easier. Early technologies were invented to increase our chances of survival. Technology (like today’s) that doesn’t increase our chance of survival will, in the long run, hurt us. Technology today causes us different levels of harm. Cars for example make transportation easier so we can expand our cities and commutes to work. This not only eliminates the practical use of our legs (walking), and causes many deaths each year (car accidents). But what about the people who cannot afford cars? Their lives become harder, while others’ become easier. The manufacturing and exhaust of cars also directly negatively affects our planet, in the long run global warming will cause us more and more problems and could possibly end our existence. That’s just cars. Technology has been created selectively to harm other humans in such cruel and sadistic ways. We have created different technologies for every aspect of our lives. Much technology decreases physical social bonds and eliminates social structure between friends, family, and other people. Technology has allowed technologically advanced nations to live in a way in which the question of survival no longer depends on naturalistic solutions. The technology we have created to ‘help’ us is now doing everything for us and is the cause of our own health (physical and mental) problems.

Meeks, William. "Is Technology Hurting Us? Progression or Regression?" 8 Nov. 2007. 20 Oct. 2008 .

4. My prediction of our future lives is bad, really bad. As technology keeps making our lives ‘easier’ we will live longer and reproduce more. We are already exhausting our natural resources and with more population, we will be putting more and more stress on our environment. Although we have come up with artificial solutions to many pressing issues (fuel, disease, mortality), our problems are catching up with us as we go further and further into our industrial revolution. Since 1900, we have added 30 years to average life expectancy, but 70% of those gains came before 1951. Although our life expectancies have gone up due to technological advances, we will soon see our situation become worse. We have been taught values of advancing technology and increasing capital. We will continue with these materialistic views until it is too late. On the extreme side, this is one example of the way for things to turn out: 55 million years ago, there was an extraordinary blast of global warming that melted the polar ice caps, in turn stopping the currents of the oceans. Because of this everything in the ocean died, there was no flow of oxygen and a poisonous gas formed at the ocean depths. This gas grew and expanded, eventually seeping into the atmosphere. This gas, more deadly than cyanide, killed over 90% of everything living on the planet. While this might not be the full extent of the effects of our actions, we know that over population and pollution will only result in the collapse of our society. As scientists study the output of CO2 and pollutants into the atmosphere, there are growing concerns for the affects of our actions. The only way for us to prevent catastrophic disasters we need to change the way we live and end the industrial revolution.

Shapiro, Jack. "Stunning Update - U.S. Life Expectancy Gains Continuing to Erode." 20 Oct. 2008 Global warming 55 million years ago shifted ocean currents. 4 Jan. 2008. BreitBart. 20 Oct. 2008 http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=060104185028.juffd4y7&show_article=1