Everyonelooksforwardtoprogresswhetherinone’spersonallifeorinthegeneralsociety.Progressindicatesaperson’sabilitytochangethewayheislivingatthemoment.Progressmustleadabetterwayofdoingthings.Allthesehoweverremainstrueonlyinsofaraspeoplewanttoaccepttechnologyandmoveforwardbyfindingnewandmoreefficientwaysofdoingthings.
Howeveratthebackofthemindsofmanypeopleespeciallythosewhomissedthe“goodolddays”efficiencycomeswithaprice.Whencommunicationbecomesefficientpeopleareabletocontactoneanothernomatterwheretheyareandatwhatevertimetheywishto.Theclickofabuttonallowspeoplemilesaparttotalkortoseeeachotherwithoutevenleavingtheirhomes.Withthecommunicationgadgetssuchasmobilephonesandipadspeopleoftendonottaketheeffecttovisitoneanotherpersonally.Apersonalvisitcarrieswithittheadditionalfeatureofhavingtobeintheperson’spresenceforaslongasthevisitlasts.Wecannotunnecessarilyexcuseourselvesorturntheotherpersonoff.
Withefficiencyalsocomesmassproduction.Suchisthenatureoffactoriesandthesuccessofindustrializationtoday.Factorieshaveimprovedefficiency.Unskillfultasksarelefttomachinesandproductsarebettermadeandproducedwithgreateraccuracythananyhumanhandcouldeverhavedone.Howeverwiththeimprovementsinefficiencyalsocomesthelossofthepersonaltouchwhenmakingtheseproducts.Forexamplemanyhandcrafts(手工艺品)arenowproducedinafactory.Althoughthismeansthatsupplyisbetterabletoincreasedemandnowthatthesupplyisquickandefficientthedemandmightfallbecausemassproductionlowersthequalityofthehandicraftanditisdifficulttofinduniquedesignsoneachitem.
Neverthelesswemustnotcommitthemistakeofanalyzingprogressonlyfromonepointofview.Infactprogresshasallowedtraditiontokeepup.Itisonlywithprogressandtheinventionofnewtechnologythatmanyoldproductscanbebroughtbacktotheiroldstate.Newtechnologyisrequiredforoldproductstostayold.
Itispeople’sattitudetowardsprogressthatcausesthetypeofinfluencethattechnologyhasonsociety.Technologyisflexible.Thereisnofixedwayofmakinguseofit.Everythingdependsonpeople’sattitude