Technology as we know it has become one of the biggest parts of our everyday lives. The machine that E.M. Forster describes represents all technology that we, as a whole, have been depending on for so long. Although this short story was written in 1909, what Forster wrote is now being paralleled by society. Without technology, such as computer systems, many humans begin to think that they are not able to function. This seemed to be the case present on New Years Eve of the year 1999. Many people believed that as soon as the time became midnight of New Years 2000, there would be no electricity and one was worried they would not be able to survive. Computers also help run most of the factory work that help us manufacture things such as things we deem to be necessities in our every day lives, even though we could in fact live without them.
The digital world has begun to transform our society. We are able to turn to the internet to do everything for us, just as the machine did for the people in the story. Why go shopping for groceries, clothing, shoes, etc in a crowded mall, when you can just as easily buy these articles with a click of a button online? Instead of turning to books, newspapers or other articles for school research projects, teenagers have now found that it is much easier to turn to the technological advances of the internet. The power of the internet has been used to try to change our lives, as we now complain we do not have enough time to do everything at once. The internet is also able to help us communicate to one another through a screen just as the woman and her son Kuno did in the story.
The machine that was put forward in “The Machine Stops” was able to do everything for the people in a push of a button. They were not subjected to what would have been the real world; this is what has also happened with human access to newer technologies. Families once used to spend a lot of time together have now been found spending less and less time with each other. According to Martin Turcotte of Stats Canada, workers are already spending less time with their families compared to 20 years ago. The factors that seemed to be associated with this were the increase in one watching television alone, eating alone and spending less time on meals, but more time on television and other social activities.
The social interaction that was once present in our lives has started to decrease as new technology has begun to enter the lives of the population of the world. We have become almost entirely reliant on the fact that we have the ability to use this technology. We can compare our society with the one in the short story because technology is the main media which has forced the family in the story to practically forget all about social interaction, this also seems to be the case with what is going on with ourselves. We have begun to lose sight of what actual human interaction is when we have gotten ourselves so caught up in the technological advantages that we have. The internet has become a staple in everyday lives; teenagers have also begun to use various messenger services which allow one to communicate to another through the screen of a computer instead of a simple telephone call or walking to the other person’s house in order to speak to one another. This story of technological advantages has become a reality in our society whether we decide to accept that as fact or fiction.
Bibliography References
Sutherland, Fraser. Collins Pocket Reference English Dictionary. Canadian Edition. Toronto: HarperCollins, 1998.
Turcotte, Martin. "Canadian Social Trends." Stats Canada. 13 February 2007. Stats Canada. 29 Sep 2007
