Is progress beneficial for the society?

Well, I agree with this statement. If you have read my previous posts, someone of you may conclude that I prefer urban to rural. It's the same for this post. I could use this as one of my reasons to support my argument on urban vs rural. Firstly, let me define progress.

The government wants progress for the society, for the nation. So, what is progress? Progress means different things to different people. People evaluate progress in their own opinion, some people thinks that progress is one step further to their own ideal world. Many believed that America is the most progressive country, so what constitutes America to be the most progressive country. Well, progress is an advancement in a positive way, not necessarily a monotonically increasing advance. Sustainability... Well-being ... Quality of Life, these are the things that constitutes progress. The progress for society means changing of society toward the ideal. With that, let us analyse progress for the society, in my own opinion.

Yes, progress is beneficial for the society only. With progress, technology and improvement to our daily areas occurs. A simple thing like changing your old normal phone to an i-phone or any phone with 3G services is a progress, with improvement to any area, personal or global. Throughout the past, technological innovations have helped humankind improve their standards of living, beginning with the simple invention of bone tools in prehistoric times, continuing on to and beyond modern air conditioners, computers, internet, etc. These are examples of progress and benefitted the society.

In the past, people are troubled with communicating in a distance. That's why phones are invented to solve the problem. Imagine that you are in grave danger and needed help immediately. That's when phones are used. Doesn't it benefit you and the society? Because of progress, modernisation occurs and we have lights, which creates the artificial day in the night and therefore we can study at night. We also have computers whereby important documents are made everyday and we have little worries about losing them.

However, there are also disadvantages as well. With handphones, radiation given off them and other hi-tech gadgets might have caused the abrupt disappearance of the bees that pollinate crops. With technology, there are global warming, pollution of the water, land and the air. A geography essay might follow this. Therefore, progress also causes environmental problems in terms of technology and modernisation.

With the above points, I conclude that progress is beneficial for the society but not at all beneficial for the environment.