MONTHLY TOEFL ESSAY #2

Ubiquitous world in the 21st century

Elderly say that the world has changed a lot. All they have imagined about have become reality and life became easier and comfortable. The biggest change that is brought is that the world became ubiquitous. For instance, moving from place to destination meant just ‘shifting’ in the past. There was nothing people could do but reading books or staring at the landscapes. However, with the progress of modern techniques, working while moving became practical. As the meaning of ‘moving’ differed, lifestyle changed. The barrier between career and private life slowly vanished and different forms of job emerged. The ubiquitous lifestyle enabled telecommuting and long-distance (videoconferencing). Some problems or side effects also emerged with the new paradigm.

To begin with, technology development especially internet services and mobile phones caused a change in people’s occupation. An image of preceding typical career was an image of group of people inside an office, doing meetings with co-workers. The new technology broke the prejudice. Nowadays, people can concentrate on their career regardless of the place. Thus, telecommuting and videoconferencing became reality and made people’s life more comfortable. However, some side effects also appeared. Since work is available in any place or time, it intrudes private time. Even after regular laboring hours, people check things about their career in their daily spare times. For example, mobile phone is a very convenient device for modern people. People can check their work any time any day and can be ready for any emergency. However, even during vacation or holidays, workers have to check their e-mails or documents due to a burden of their career. The technology development is convenient but surely spoils one’s private time.

The other change due to the development of ubiquitous devices is that people’s lifestyle changed. People use their time more diversely in modern days. Owing to the technical enhancement, contacting with different people and finding information is available in any place, anytime. As a result, people could easily keep in touch with others regardless of place, country. Furthermore, the ubiquitous technology allowed people to use their spare time such as time for moving and commuting much efficient. For instance, airplane faced significant development with the development of ubiquitous devices. Commuting and interacting with the information of the plane became a basic function. Nowadays, downloading movies and chatting with friends by SNS is available even above thousands of feet of earth. The ubiquitous devices enabled a comfortable life.

The most significant changes in the 21^st century is actually bad. There is a gap between the rapid development of ubiquitous techniques and ethics. People are not that mature enough to deal with social problems such as intrusion of private life. Since ubiquitous techniques enhanced, most people gained more intimidate relationship with their friends. This is a good consequence of development. However, people’s personal information such as appearance, height, age, academic achievement is exposed to other people. Thus, others might know about a person regardless of his agreement. Intrusion of private life is extended farther to crimes related to personal information or stalking.

To sum up, 21^st century has faced a huge change by technological development. Especially, development of ubiquitous techniques such as internet or mobile phone, laptop computer has facilitated the change. The change includes diversity of job and working environment. Furthermore, it led to changes in daily lifestyle such as comforting the customers and allowing to use time efficiently. In contrast, the enhancement also produced some social issues such as intrusion of private life and expanded to other crimes.