Do big cities represent a society?

To understand the most important characteristics of a society, one must study its major cities.

Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, you should consider ways in which the statement might or might not hold true and explain how these considerations shape your position.

To analyze the major characteristics of a society it is important to study the interactions between different individuals. Major cities provide a rich environment for the interaction of people in a community and are imperative in the analysis of a society's important characteristics, but they may not provide the whole picture or represent all strata of people in a society.

It has been shown scientifically that large societies function more effectively by assigning different roles to different people. The functions of people in different economic and social classes differ. Similar communities gather themselves and hence different geographic regions consist of people with different attitudes and social behavior. Some of these regions may be large, while others may be small and secluded. These communities share basic attitudes and depend on each other for development and survival and hence are part of the same society. But to analyze the important characteristics of the society as a whole one cannot choose to focus on only the major cities. Many times small and secluded communities in a society provide deep insight into the important characteristics of a society.

 Consider for example the Indian society. The people in the Indian sub-continent share many values, attitudes and cultural traits. Hence, they can be classified as a single society. But to discern the important features of an Indian society it would be a ludicrous mistake to look at only the geographically and economically big cities like Mumbai and Delhi. Analyzing the behaviour of people in these cities one may conclude that Indians are extravagant people who spend their time roaming in malls and in late night rave parties, where men and women enjoy the same freedoms and share equal responsibilities. Stark contrast in the attitudes and behaviours of communities can be observed by bringing to light the examples of "Khaps" and "panchayats" in the Indian villages. Recently a "panchayat" in a small village near New Delhi was in the news for establishing a rule that prevented women from going out alone after sunset. These incidents point out the vast difference in the functioning of societies in large and small cities. These differences cannot be explained by the economic disparity alone. Many Indians would agree that large cities and metros represent singularities in social behaviours and attitudes.

The diversity in different societies varies by large factors. In a small and homogenous society it may be sufficient to look at only the major cities and draw conclusions about the characteristics of the whole society, but in large and diverse societies it would be fallacious to draw any conclusion from the studies conducted in large cities only.  For some societies, it may even be true that large cities represent singularities in social attitudes and behaviors and hence must be discarded as outliers in a scientific study.

Is technology good or bad

As people rely more and more on technology to solve problems, the ability of humans to think for themselves will surely deteriorate.

Instructions : Analyze and take sides.

Dependence on technology has led to an apparent decline in the "mental ability" of people. People rely on electronic gadgets and mechanical inventions for their day to day jobs and it seems that they would not be able to function without them. But does this mean that relying on technology to reduce the burden of daily tasks has slowed the development of the human race and reduced the mental acumen of our generation.

On the contrary, today, technology has shifted people's focus from the dull and boring tasks of everyday life to the specialized field of his profession. For example, as a scientist trying to develop faster and advanced algorithms in my field I can choose to work in a high level computer language and ignore the monotonous and dull tasks of converting and testing the program in assembly languages. Using the internet, I have fast access to the existing literature at my fingertips. To compare different methods I can use have access to already developed software and testing beds, all of which would not have been possible a decade earlier. Earlier, even If I had access to vast literature, I would have to go through large tomes of unrelated information which would decline my productivity.

The internet allows people in different regions of the world to come together and contribute and develop new fields. People can communicate across the globe via satellite links, which requires the use of systems whose development and maintenance requires expertise in vast number of fields. People do not know the intricacies of these systems but that information is not required for progress in their respective fields.

Technology today has shortened gaps across globes, brought economic and social upliftment of societies, improved the health and longevity of human race and expedited development in every field. When I get up, I do not have to think about the getting to my workplace, as compared to a century earlier where people's profession were determined by their position on the globe. The social revolutions and movements in different parts of the world have been possible only because of the iniquitousness of communication equipments. The human race has benefited from research in healthcare most of which is bundled up in the vaults of big pharmaceutical companies.

Some demerits of the excessive use of technology can be pointed out in the excessive dependence of students on calculators for computation and the decrease in face-to-face communication brought on by social networking. Technology is able to provide information quickly and easily on people's smartphones and thus has reduced retentive capabilities of people's memory. The benefits of these technologies far out-weigh their disadvantages. Social networking sites like facebook have revolutionized communication by bringing together societies on a common medium. It has allowed people to be aware of social issues and keep in touch with old friends across the globe. People do not have to laboriously compile information not directly related to their profession. Computers and calculators have expedited research and development in all fields although many times people using these technologies have very less idea about the intricacies of development of transistors and logical arrays which run these devices.

Technology today has allowed people to focus on relevant details. Experts in a vast array of fields have been created and the development of the race has been expedited, although the knowledge of an expert in a field is limited to his area. Reducing the use of technology would be a ludicrous suggestion although some measures can be taken to properly educate our posterity of its proper usage.