When considering important issues that have been affected by science and technological change, the most important issue that comes to my mind is the issue of family relationships. The relationships between parents and their children and even between brothers and sisters has changed drastically largely in part due to technological advancement. Some aspects of these changes are positive in nature of course, but when weighing the good with the bad one must wonder if the price the families pay for these advancements is worthwhile. Good quality family time is a scarce resource not often found nowadays.
If we look back over the past 50 years, the time of the most technological advancement, you can see drastic differences in the social lifestyles of society as a whole. In the fifties, family time was an essential part of daily life. Families would regularly sit down and eat dinner together, discuss school issues, and in general how their day had gone.
No Video Games
A typical retail display (in Geneva, Switzerland) ...
The Beatles performing "Help!" in August 1965.It was a big treat to be able to sit in the living room as a family and listen to "The Ed Sullivan show" or "The Green Hornet" on the radio. Kids would spend their summers and days after school outside at the park, riding bikes, playing baseball, or building tree forts. It was ok to share a soda with a bunch of friends out of the same bottle without worrying about catching some strange unknown disease. Imagine the horror a baseball coach would have nowadays if his entire team shared a "Big Gulp" from "Seven Eleven" using the same straw. He would probably end up with a lawsuit.
Unfortunately family time is a scarce commodity in the present time. With the technological advancement of things such as computer based "e-mail", the cellular phone, and video games,