MODERN LIVING

The advantages of living in the twentieth century are clear to anyone who
spends time in one of world’s highly developed nations. The disadvantages
of modern life, however, are sometimes not so quickly seen. Consider the
average man today in contrast with man 200 years ago. Without doubt, man’s
life has been eased considerably. Machines now perform for him many of the
services that he previously had to do for himself. They cut his grass, wash his
car, open and close his doors, walk for him, climb stairs for him, serve him
coffee, and both put him to sleep and wake him up to music.
In two major areas – transportation and communications – great progress has been made.
Mass publishing practices have spread newspapers, magazines, and paperbacks
books around the globe. Relayed across oceans by Telstar satellites, television
inform s and entertains people in every hemisphere. Mail moves swiftly and
efficiently; telephone cables connect all continents. More than any other single
invention, the gasoline engine has revolutionized modern life. City streets,
clogged with automobile traffic, tell us that. More recent discoverings have led
to the surge of jet and supersonic plane travel. Even as man darts throughout
the world, he is protected from disease as no man before him has seen, and he
can look forward to living a longer life than his grandfather did.
Furthermore, man now commands a more plentiful supply of the world’s goods. He may own
not only a car and a home but also a stove, a refrigerator, a washing machine,
books, phonograph records and cameras. Even his old age is better provided for
through pension and retirement plans offered by the government and by
industry. Thus the advantages of living in the twentieth century are many, and as much as we know, the disadvantages are likely to also be many.

In contrast, one finds that progress can also have its drawbacks. It is true that
today man moves more swiftly through the world. But in doing so, he often
loses track of the roots and traditions that give substance and meaning to life.
Nor does the fact that he is better informed through television, radio,
newspapers, and books necessarily mean that he is wiser than men of earlier
generations. Instead, the ease with which the written and spoken words are
produced today sometimes seems to lead to superficiality of thought. Although
man has been given the gift of leisure and a longer life, he has become more
restless and is often uncomfortable when he is not working. Flooded with goods
and gadgets, he finds his appetite for material things increased, not satisfied.
Man invented machines to replace his servants. But some current observers feel
that man is in danger of becoming the servant of his machines. Mass
production lowered the cost of many products, but as prices went down, quality
also often decreased. Another distressing aspect of modern life is its
depersonalization. In many offices, automation is beginning to replace human
workers. Some colleges identify students not by their names, but by their IBM
numbers. Computers are winning the prestige that philosophers had in an
earlier age. The frenzied pace in many cities is another of the less attractive by-
products of an industrial society.
Soon, man may even fall victim to the subtle
loss of privacy that threatens him. Even today, he can be watched on closed
circuit television screens as he walks in stores and hotels. He may be tracked
by radar while driving on the highway or listened to by means of a microphone
concealed in his heating system. He might be sharing his telephone
conversation with an unknown auditor. Certainly many problems face men living
in the most technologically advanced era in history. As old enemies have been
overcome, new enemies come into view, just like the old ones. Yet if modern
man remains the master of his own fate, he can still fashion a satisfying life in
this fast-moving century.