Short Essay on the Effects of Technology and War on Social Change

There are numerous and varied causes of social change. The macro-level focuses more on societies and global social systems. More so, the increased uses of technology and war have an effect on social change.
War can have many different impacts on societies. It depends very much on what the society is like before the war, what the war is about, how popular the war is, whether that particular country wins or loses the war, and many other variables. Wars and conquests affect social change mainly by exposing one culture to another. Wars can also affect social culture by impacting size and rate of growth of the human population in any location (where the war is being fought). For example, the major impact of WWII on US society as a whole was fairly positive. The war stimulated the US economy and helped to get it out of the Great Depression. The war led to an increase in patriotism and solidarity in the country. It also helped to some degree with moving the United States towards giving civil rights to African Americans. War can, of course, have much more negative impacts on a society. WWII, for example, pushed German society towards evil. The best example of this, of course, is how the war allowed Germans to participate in the Holocaust. In this way, war can sometimes bring out the worst in a society.
Technology also affects social change. Technology has advanced so much since the 1960’s. These advancements have affected every aspect of life, as we know it. We have advances in medical technology that allows otherwise infertile women to bear children, indirectly leading to an increase in population. We also have medical technology and knowledge that allows the human race to live longer then ever before. There are advances in agricultural technology that have allowed us to genetically alter and patent food products, changing our environment in innumerable ways. The agricultural advancements have also allowed us to make more food faster for more people and store it for longer, if need be. We have shipping methods that also allow us to easily obtain and eat food from across the world. We can fly across the world in several hours, connecting us more than ever before. The greatest advancement in technology would have to be the creation of the internet. With the internet, we can communicate with people that are farther away. We communicate with people that we would not have communicated with if it weren’t for the advanced technology that we have at our fingertips. From the way we educate children in the classroom to the way we grow the food we eat, technology has impacted all aspects of modern life.
In conclusion, technological advancement and war have most definitely caused social change. War has caused cultures to come face to face with each other, with good and bad outcomes. Technology advancement has resulted in the production of surplus food, population growth, urbanization and industrialization. All these have affected family size, occupational divisions, gender roles, interdependency, social competition etc. Developments in the field of transportation and communication reduced the social distance, which gave momentum to cultural diffusion and thereby to social change.