I believe that technology does change society. All you need to do is compare the present with the past. Lets take banking for instance.
Back in the day a customer would have to make the special trip into the bank to deposit money, withdraw money, draw cheques, transfer money and even apply for credit cards or loans. The introduction of ATMs in the 70s revolutionised the banking industry. This made it possible to do banking at anytime of the day. But you still needed to leave to house and physically go to the machine to make your transactions.
As the internet began to sprout in the late 80s, so did internet “online” banking. “Banks would actually mail us a floppy disk with software that we could install onto our PC… using a dial-up modem, we could talk to the bank’s systems. We could check balances and make transfers but we usually paid for the privilege.” (Canstar Cannex 2010)
In the 90s, banks set up websites instead of sending out software for their customers to access their bank accounts. This let customers access their bank accounts any time of the day from the comfort of their home or office. Whats the next step in banking? Well with the new “smartphones” and its “apps”, banks are developing new tools, security and gimmicks to offer their customers to improve on their banking experience, making online banking available 24/7, anywhere in the world. Banking is now on demand.
Gone are the days of long queues in banks dealing with disgruntled customer service assistants… but with all this technology is this just making the banks pockets bigger as now they need less man power to run their banks? Will banking be converted to online permanently and the days of physical banks be that of the past? Lets see where technology will take us and will change society as we know it today.
References
http://www.atm24.com/newssection/industry%20news/timeline%20-%20the%20atm%20history.aspx
http://www.canstar.com.au/history/
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