The luxuries and conveniences of contemporary life prevent people from developing into truly strong and independent individuals. Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement and explain your reasonin

Luxuries and conveniences have been brought about by the burgeoning technical developments and inventions. These developments have been materialized with the intent to minimize human labor and to enhance the quality of life. Whether human lives have indeed prospered by these advancements, or whether instead they have only been balked as a result of overindulgence, is dependent on how the technologies have been utilized. The above is a blanket statement since it generalizes the effect of technological benefits that have been endowed on the human race.

To begin with, I am here in India taking the GRE online where my answers will be recorded simultaneously, and then evaluated and declared within a few days, all through the digital media. The entire process from registering for the test to recieving my result will be facilitated by fiber optics, internet, computer, or in other words, the strides made possible by physical and computer science. Likewise, for attending a seminar at Houston, I need not start travelling from months ahead on a ship. With daily flights commuting places all across the world, I can easily reach my destination within a few hours. Although, even if I miss my flight, I can still present my paper online through Skype. By the way, since my cell phone would keep giving me daily reminders about my flight, there is hardly any chance I will miss it. My cell phone would also inform me about discounts and offers about the hotels in Houston such that I can reasonably stay in one. Besides, if at all I get muddled up with the routes to my seminar, I can always look up my Google Maps and spot it out. And once in Houston, I can book a cab in one of these apps and go sight seeing or shopping during my off time. Or, if I am lax I can play a song in my MP3 player or watch a movie on the televison in my hotel room. The gist is that with the technology beside me, I can be at ease practically anywhere in Houston, a place that is thousands of miles away from my home. The above situations simply demonstrate the influence and the kind of convenience that has been possible because of technology. Facilities like these, have made human beings self-relient, awared, and confident.

Be it in our routine lives, be it academic, entertainment, or otherwise, with technology humans are experiencing life like never before. Humans can now can book tickets sitting at home, travel across seas and continents within hours, communicate and interact with people from vastly different cultures online, buy food and other things with the click of a button, pay bills and transfer money without undergoing the torture of standing in long queues, search for a health remedy online, apply to universities and jobs, conduct researches, donate for a cause, spread awareness, and get entertained all with technology. In short, the general life of the people have hugely transformed from mundane and benign society of laboring, hunting, and idling to a society of more active, enlightened and robust lifestyles with the bounty of techincal facilities. With the ease in daily operations and activities of life, people now get more time to invest on things that were unmanageable previously. For instance, with the ease of cooking, mothers can now spend more time with the children, guide them in their homeworks for instance, and devote much more to their healthy upbringing in general. Besides, with the advancements in technology concerning the household chores like washing machines, dish washers, water purifiers, refrigerators, heaters, microwaves, etc., women who previously were entrained within the four walls of the house, can now do a job and contribute to the holistic progress of the society. Apparently, women in this century have emerged stronger and more resilient than any previous era.

The benefits of technology are not constricted within the general lives of human beings. With technology, researches can find cures for rare diseases, monitor disaster prone areas, examine the climate change effects, look out for attacks on a nation, explore the space, and so on. Consider the benefit of GPS that was originally invented for the American military. Eventually, it is become a daily accessory that helps in finding out locations. With geo-informatics and satellites, analysts can virtually reach out to any inaccessible place on earth and monitor its changes or vulnerability to some phenomena. Besides, with computers and hard drives, a large amount of data can be stored that can help in studying a phenomenons of the earth and space. With advancements in medical field, the longevity of human lives have surged to unprecedented heights. Not only humans, but other species have been equally benefitted by technologies.

There are of course the so-called cons associated with the rapid developments in technology. Critics blame technical advancements for obesity, global warming, and rapid spread of radical ideologies along with a host of other ills. However, on close inspection it is revealed that human usage and proclivities have more to do with these effects than technology. The latter was meant for convenience. Over indulgence in these means of convenience, will undeniably have adverse impacts. Too much of everything is bad, they say. So it is humans who need to control and restrain their usage. The atom bomb was not meant to annihilate and destroy when it was created by Heisenberg. But it was the impudent, feckless, and vindictive policies of the governments that led to the massacre at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Blamming the technology for the ills that we face today, is as useless as blamming Einstein for e = mc2 formula.

To sum up, we as a human race have been tremendously endowed with the technological advancements. We can hardly imagine life without the technologies that we have today. The priviledge, convenience and comfort bought by these developmets are unprecedented and impacts us more than we think they do. The ills that have resulted due tecchnical advancements are not because of their existence or creation, but for the over indulgence and injudicious use by the humans. With technology, human beings have become independent, confident and enlightened. Societies have become more civilized, women have been empowered and the world has been able to progress rapidly. Hence, the luxuries and conveniences of contemporary life have not prevented people from developing into strong individuals. Instead, they have only bolstered their lives so.