Electronics in Society

Electronics has had a great impact on modern society.

Throughout this essay i shall be studying the general development of electronics in modern society. I shall begin by describing some of the different areas of society which have been affected by electronics.Areas of Society that have been Affected by ElectronicsThe home entertainment industry has had a massive impact over the recent years as many new forms of entertainment have been introduced, For example Digital versatile Discs (DVD) and Mini Disks have only recently entered the home. The effects that electronics has had on this industry have been somewhat entirely positive, as without electronics the entire industry would cease to exist.

All current media forms are electronic, ranging from the video cassette player, the portable CD player or the home DVD player.These devices have made huge impacts on modern society, as for social aspects more and more people stay in to enjoy these forms of entertainment each year, however this is ultimately leading to a more unfit society and overweight future generations. However the ability to enjoy a cinema-like atmosphere in your own home with technologies such as 'Dolby Surround Sound' widescreen televisions and crystal clear picture quality is highly convenient and enjoyable as a whole.In the manufacturing industry electronics has made a massive impact on the mass-production of items and the ability to design more precise and intricate productions.

Robots are now widely used for car assembly, extremely efficient and reliable, and also cheap in regard to that of employee's wages. However many people have lost their jobs to be replaced by these machines, and while they are reliable they are by no means failsafe, and have a tendency to break down and will need reprogramming every time a new product is released. Elsewhere whole oil and sugar refineries are fully automated with no human input required, meaning a whole lot less manual labour required yet again people will lose their jobs, and any tradition that was in the company. Regardless, the advances have been a benefit to modern society.

In the medical services electronics has made a dramatic impact that has doubtlessly saved millions of lives. Modern electronic devices such as X-rays are comonly used evey day in hospitals all over the world to check for broken bones in patients, and Electroradiograph (ECG) recorders are frequently used on patients to detect their heartbeat/pulse and are vital to study how healhty patients are. Other technologies include atrificial kidneys, replacement limbs with electrical components and pacemakers, all vital life saving proceedures made possible thanks to electronics. Without a doubt electonics impact has been massively beneficial to society saving millions if not BILLIONS of lives.The modern communications industry would be completely non-existant if it wasnt for electronics.

Communications satellites enable events from around the whole planet to be seen and heard on anywhere else immediatly as they happen. Mobile phone services such as Orange, Vodaphone and Cellnetallow people virtually anywhere whether it be in cars on trains or in countryside to contact anywhere. This is of a great benefit to modern society and is of great convienience to many people.Area of Society that I Wish to Investigate FurtherThe topic which i have decided to study in more detail is the computer industry. The Computer in my opinion is the most significant creation ever.

Almost all recent devices are based on computers in one form or another and many are desing on computers using CAD technologies. I am going to be looking at the home aspect of computers that will be familiar to many, the Personal Computer (PC).The following are 6 different technologies using electronics within Personal Computers.Email (Electronic Mail) is the sending of a virtual, digital mail messages to another pc, or through recent technological advances even to/from mobile phones and laptops. These digital messages can be sent individually or to multipe persons at once, saving vast amounts of time, and are a whole lot more practical than sending a handwritten letter as email travels at 100, 000 miles per second.

The only drawback would be that both sender and recipent would require a pc and internet connection, but in this modern day that is hardly a problem any longer. Email has caused a massive cultural impact and is by far one of the most convienient and time saving forms of communication.The Internet is the most significant and rapidly growing landmark in computer history. It allows anyone from anywhere, proving they have a phone line to contact anyone in the world.

The web is know as the information superhighway with its rapdily growing network of users and endless ammounts of information about anything you could possibly dream of. the internet is also the base for many other technologies, for example Email (see above).It was introduced during the 60's, led via The Department of Defences Advanced Reasearch project Agency (ARPA) which became a slowly but surely growing network. In 1991 the World Wide Web was born and within another 5 years it had conquered the entire glode. It is now a major part of everyday life for many millions of people (myself included) and is a significant step towards the future.Computers have had a massive impact on the music industry, with sound files containing popular songs freely avaidable to download and distribute, plus with CD copying facilities in many households, piracy is at an all time high.

The music industry has lost millions due to this, yet electronic's influence on the music industry isn't all bad.All modern day recording and mixing of music tracks is done on computers. This means artists creating new songs and tracks is easier than ever. We now have songs that are entirely digitally compiled, not a single instrument needs to be picked up to create a new song with Dj's using pre-recorded samples and riffs that were recorded from instruments using electronics to create songs. In the future this could possibly lead to a society where a musical instrument need never be picked up again and people who cant play an instrument can still make the music they desire.Almost all buissnesses worldwide have had a great impact upon them with the introduction of computer spreadhseet and databse systems.

These allow for the easy implemntation of data and records that would normally have to be hand-written and stored in masses of filing cabinets. The data input into these spreadsheets and databases is easily access and altered, and the inclusion of formulae means that less data has to be input and several sheets of data can be put into one file. Overall it saves time, space, and effort. Plus without these system modern day facilities such as banks and hospitals would be virtually impossible to run manually.