A better plow meant easier farming, more food, longer lives, and more free time to pursue other things such as art.
Our newest technology does not give us more free time; it consumes our free time.
We are terminally distracted from confronting ourselves or each other.
We stay safe, and lonely, in our homes and offices rather than taking the risk of meeting real people or trying new things.

While I am certainly not a Luddite, I do believe we need to look for a bit more balance between technology and life.
We have to tear ourselves away from the fatal distractions and go out into the world.
Technology has given us long lives and endless supplies of information.
Now we need to apply that information, use the time we're not spending conking our dinner with a club, and find our reasons for living.

评价

This outstanding response displays cogent reasoning, insightful, persuasive analysis, and superior control of language.
The essay immediately identifies the complexities of the issue and then playfully explores both the benefits and the drawbacks of technological developments over the course of human history.
The writer maintains that a "balance between technology and life" is necessary if humans are going to abate the loneliness that is part of modern existence.

5

I disagree with the argument that "Both the development of technological tools and the uses to which humanity has put them have created modern civilizations in which loneliness is ever increasing."" Arguments can be made for this thesis, but they depend largely upon what I believe to be a poor definition of "loneliness".

If one defines loneliness as the absence of as much physical, face-to-face contact with other people, then this argument is probably true.
The invention of modern telecommunications devices such as telephones, fax machines, and computers has definitely cut down on the amount of physical contact with other people.
This is especially true in recent times due to the extremely rapid expansion of the Internet.
E-mail and tele-conferencing are direct substitutes for physical contact, especially in the business world.

However, I believe that loneliness can be better measured by intellectual contact with other individuals.
Unarguably, mode

rn technology makes this faster and easier, with better communication with a larger number of people.
Some employers have argued that productivity is lessened since they have had computers linked to the Internet, as the employees spend much of their time "chatting" with friends, acquaintances, or business contacts across the country.liuxuepaper.com