Introduction to Sociology

TRY IT

15. 
    Children in developing nations have little to no daily access to computers and the Internet, while children in most developed nations are constantly exposed to this technology. This is an example of:
    
    1. 
       Modernization theory
       
    2. 
       The digital divide
       
    3. 
       Dependency theory
       
    4. 
       Human ecology
       

Check your answers at the end of this document

TECHNOLOGY TODAY

Does all this technology have a positive or negative impact on your life? When it comes to cell phones, a large majority of users check their phones for messages or calls even when the phone is not ringing. In addition, 71% of cell phone users sleep with the phone next to the bed, 60% of U.S. college students consider themselves to have a cell phone addiction, and 44% of people say they could not go a day without their cell phone.^[3]
With so many people using social media both in the United States and abroad, it is no surprise that it is a powerful force for social change. Eighty-eight of 18- to 29-year-olds indicate that they use some form of social media.^[4] You will read more about the influence of technology on social movements in later modules, but you can surely see examples around you of ways the technology has been used to raise awareness (like Twitter hashtags), fight stereotypes, or even change laws. In Latvia, two twenty-three-year-olds used a U.S. State Department grant to create an e-petition platform so citizens could submit ideas directly to the Latvian government. If at least 20 percent of the Latvian population (roughly 407,200 people) supports a petition, the government will look at it (Kumar 2014).

THINK IT OVER

• 
  Where do you get your news? Is it owned by a large conglomerate (you can do a web search and find out!)? Does it matter to you who owns your local news outlets? Why, or why not?
  
• 
  To what extent is technology becoming a cultural universal?
  
• 
  Can you think of people in your own life who support or defy the premise that access to technology leads to greater opportunities? How have you noticed technology use and opportunity to be linked, or does your experience contradict this idea?