Technology has significantly affected society. It has benefits like improving medicine, communication, and business, but also has negatives like computer hackers and inappropriate websites. While inventions like farming and cooking from the Stone Age are still used today, new technologies also have both positive and negative impacts, such as the cotton gin boosting industry while incentivizing slavery, and airplanes and computers providing benefits but also vulnerabilities. Society's constant demand for new products fails to consider technology's full effects on individuals and nations.

1. Affects of Technology on
Society
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science
Foundation under Grant No. 0402616. Any opinions, findings and conclusions
or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do
not necessarily reflect the view of the National Science Foundation (NSF).

2. How has Technology Affected
YOU?
All Technology has a
profound affect on
all of us. Can you
tell me the pros
and cons of
technology?

3. Technology is the basis of a society, and it affects all
civilizations past, present, and future. Technology is like
Newton's third law of motion, "For every action there is an
opposite reaction.
How does technology affect you and this classroom?

4. Technology has many benefits but at the same time
it can have negative consequences.
Technology affects our society significantly. For
example one of the most advanced inventions is the
computer. The computer might be considered the
greatest invention ever (next to the telephone and
light bulb) and we are constantly finding new ways
to improve it. Computers influence many aspects of
our lives, including: medicine, communications,
mathematics, entertainment, business, agriculture,
and all other sciences.
How do you use computers today?

5. While computers are beneficial to us
we depend on them too much; this
makes us vulnerable to computer
hackers who seek to destroy all we
have created. What about
inappropriate web sites? Chat
rooms? These can also be negative.
Have you ever heard of a story
concerning computers that turned
out to be negative?

6. We tend to think of inventions as modern
gadgets, yet there are Stone Age innovations
that we still use today. Think of inventions
that still exsist in the 21st century. Some
examples might be farming, cooking, games
etc.

7. Velcro inventor George de Mestral wanted more
stringent patent (excludes other from using
invention for a period of time) laws. How would
extending the life of a patent benefit inventors?
What would be the affects on the rest of society?
How would this affect drug manufacturers as we
discussed in unit 1?

8. The cotton gin is a vivid example of how an invention
can have positive (boosting the textile industry) and
negative (creating a strong new economic incentive for
owning slaves) effects on society. Are there other
inventions that have (positive and negative aspects)?
Some may include airplanes, automobiles, cell phones,
computers, etc.
Name the positive and negative of each of these
inventions!!

9. Society pushes us to invent and
innovate new products every day.
We as a society demand more and
better products all the time. Do we
stop to look at the affect this has on
us as a society and a nation. Stop
and think about how technology
effects you both positively and
negatively every day.

10. Society pushes us to invent and
innovate new products every day.
We as a society demand more and
better products all the time. Do we
stop to look at the affect this has on
us as a society and a nation. Stop
and think about how technology
effects you both positively and
negatively every day.