Living in the 21st Century

A person born in the 21^st century has seen a lot of changes taking place in almost all areas of human life. Some people are excited by the challenges that these changes offer. Others want to return to the simpler, less automated life style of the past. Living in the 21^st century has certain advantages such as a higher standard of living, but it also some disadvantages such as a polluted environment, the depersonalization of relationships, and the weakening of spiritual values.

                The biggest advantage of living in the 21^st century is the high standard of living we enjoy. In this modern time, we are living in a new period of life powered by technology, fueled by information, and driven by knowledge. We are entering the new century with opportunity on our side. People can earn more money without working hard. Increased global competition will affect the type of work being done in workplaces, creating new high-skilled jobs and reducing demand for low-skilled work. Furthermore, the rapid growth of technology takes a big role in transformation the type of workers. The use of computers and the internet in the workplaces will become more pervasive and the functions performed using computers will dramatically increase. This automatically will be followed by rising of the number of office worker and lessening of manual workers. In this case, more people will be paid with high salaries.

                Moreover, as life in a modern time, we can enjoy longer life expectancy. We can get better Medical care since government increase services concerning to healthiness of the society. They provide more hospital buildings with the doctors working in their high expertise and nurses concerning our health. The advancement in medical technology also gives us guarantee of longer life expectancy. The nutrition has been improved to ensure the physical condition of human life. As the result of the development in medical care, we find no worry about our health and we can enjoy more leisure time.

The influence of technology will go beyond new equipment and faster communications. We are no longer worry about the distance because the development of telephones. Almost everyone has their own cellular phone with sophisticated features. Radio and television also assist the distribution of data and information. In addition, the use of labor-saving machines in the home such as washing machines, dishwashers, vacuum cleaners really make our life easier, we can save our energy to do another benefit thing. Further, we can find faster transportation such as train, airplane, cars, and others that facilitate us to go to many places without spending a lot of times.

However, we have to realize that one of the main disadvantages of living in the 21^st century is that we are living in an increasingly polluted environment. As we know that polluted environment is boldly stated to be the most frightening impact of living in the very modern century. The pollutions describe in to several cases, they are air pollution, water pollution and raw sewage from cities. Air pollution is known as a substance in the air that can cause harm or discomfort to humans or other living organisms, or damages the natural environment, into the atmosphere commonly in the form of smog and unclear fallout. Source of air pollution can be man made or natural. Some of them occur naturally, originating from volcanoes, dust storms, forest and grassland fires, living vegetation, and the sea spray. Human activities, such as the burning of fossil fuels in vehicles, power plants and various industrial processes also generate significant amounts of air pollution. Increased levels of fine particles in the air are linked to health hazards such as heart disease, altered lung function and lung cancer. Secondly, water pollution is known as a substance in the water that can cause harm or discomfort to humans and other living things. It is usually caused by chemical water s from factories. The impacts of water pollution are increased in the number of dead fish cases and contaminated drinking water supplies. The last pollution is in matter of raw sewage from cities, much sewage from the cities can not be recycled so that it is harmful to our environment.

A second disadvantage of living in the 21^st century is the depersonalization of human relations. People do not care about the others because they think that they can live without anyone else. It is mainly because of the finding machines that often make their life simpler and easier. For example they do not need to make a body contact to the other in the society because of the use of automated vending machines, tape recorded telephone answering, computerized dating services and etc.

The final disadvantage of living in 21^st century is the weakening of spiritual values. The changing in culture of the society from balance spiritual culture becomes more materialistic culture. Moreover they believe of faithfulness in science instead of in religion.

In conclusion, although the 21^st century has indeed given us a lot of advantages by making us richer, healthier and freer to enjoy our lives, it has, in my opinion, not made us wiser. The 21^st century has also made our Earth dirties, our people less humane, and our spiritual lives poorer. We should continue to enjoy the benefits of technological advancements because they free us to pursue our interests and goals. However, we must make a concerted effort to preserve our natural environment for future generation. Moreover, we should take the time now to make our lives more meaningful in an increasingly impersonal, mechanized world.

note that we have to be wise, in every step of our life...

20/05/2010
ikha oktavianti