Inevitable And Continuing Change That Is The Dominant Factor In Society Today

Social changes

As Isaac Asimov once said “It is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today”, the world is on continues progress of social change. According to Duggan and Smith (2013), the number of people using social media is increasing rapidly. There has been an increase of 4% on both Facebook and Instagram users and a 6% increase in Pinterest users in just one year, from 2012 to 2013(Duggan and Smith, 2013). The world population living in the urban area has increased from 30% in 1950 to 55% in 2018(“population facts”,2018). Whereas the number of people living in rural areas used to be twice that of urban areas in 1960, nowadays urban population is greater by 0.6 billion people(Ritchie and Roser,2018). In other words, the overall urbanization rate of the world is dramatically increasing. The considerable changes over the past few decades with regard to food and education are all leading a more comfortable life.

In the past few decades, there have been significant changes with regard to diet. Firstly, the food prices are reduced considerably. For instance, according to Kelly and Bates (2016) in the past few decades, there has been a decrease of 13% of the total expenditure on food. Not only better logistics but also an increase in competition and modern agricultural methods are the causes for the reduction of food prices (Kelly and Bates,2019). The cost of food is cheaper than it was before. On the other hand, over the past few decades, the level of food intake has been increased considerably. For example, according to Wilson (2019) having more snacks and drinking more calorific liquids for satisfying our thirst are common nowadays, increasing daily consumption than it before. Moreover, plates are notably larger in size than they were 50 years ago. Not only does consuming more burgers and fries, but also eating more fruits and avocado toasters and frozen yogurt have increased the food intake level than it was before (Wilson,2019). In other words, the present diet consumption is greater than it was in the past.

A further change in society over the past few decades is with regard to education. Firstly, with the development of technology along with the internet, the way of learning in schools has improved considerably. For instance, whereas students in the past used to learn only with textbooks, nowadays they are learning with laptops and tablets (Alvarez,2018). In addition, not only has technology increased the student’s accessibility to educational information and online books, but it also has increased the interaction between teachers and students (McNeely, n.d.). Moreover, (Harish,2013) claims that technology has increased the number of students enrolling for online courses by raising it from 25% in 2004 to 81% in 2013. In other words, technology has improved educational opportunities over time. A further change associated with the improvement of education is an increase in the literacy level of the world population. For example, the literacy level of the world population has increased by 4% every 5 years, raising it from 42% in 1960 to 86% in 2015(Ortiz-Ospina and Roser,2018). Whereas due to the skin color difference in the U.S, the difference in literacy between white and black people was wide, nowadays it is appreciably narrowed(“120 years of literacy”,n.d). Moreover, (UNICEF,2019) highlighted the youth literacy rate increased from 83% to 91% over the past two decades, while the number of illiterate youth declined from 170 million to 115 million. The literacy level as part of education has dramatically increased in the past years.

In conclusion, social change is an inevitable process continuously increasing the number of social media users and the urbanization rate. This essay has highlighted that all social changes over the past few decades are leading to a simpler and pleasant life. It has claimed that on the hand the reduction of food prices has led to an increase in the food consumption level. On the other hand, it has also suggested not only has teaching improved with the effect of technology and the internet, but also the literacy rate has significantly increased than it was before. Knowing that social change is an inevitable continuous global process, this situation is expected to continue in the future.

References

• Alvarez, B. (2013, July 31). As More Schools Embrace Tablets, Do Textbooks Have a Fighting Chance? Retrieved from http://neatoday.org/2013/07/31/as-more-schools-embrace-tablets-do-textbooks-have-a-fighting-chance-2/
• Duggan, M., & Smith, A. (2013, December 30). Social media update 2013. Retrieved from https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2013/12/30/demographics-of-key-social-networking-platforms/
• Harish, J. (2013, September 23). Online Education: A Revolution in the Making. Retrieved from http://www.cadmusjournal.org/article/volume-2/issue-1-part-1/online-education-revolution-making
• Kelly, J. & Bates, C. (2016). 10 ways the UK’s eating habits have changed. Retrieved from
• http://www.bbc. om/news/magazine-35595530
• McNeely, B. (n.d.). Using Technology as a Learning Tool, Not Just the Cool New Thing. Retrieved from https://www.educause.edu/research-and-publications/books/educating-net-generation/using-technology-learning-tool-not-just-cool-new-thing
• Ritchie, H. & Roser, M. (2018). Urbanization. Retrieved from https://ourworldindata.org/ urbanization#number-of-people-living-in-urban-areas
• Roser, M. & Ortiz-Ospina, E. (2018). Literacy. Retrieved from https://ourworldindata .org/literacy
• UNICEF (2019). Literacy. Retrieved from https://data.unicef.org/topic/education/literacy/
• United Nations, Department of Economic and social affairs (2018, December). The speed of urbanization around the world. Retrieved from https://population.un.org/wup/ Publications/Files/WUP2018-PopFacts_2018-1.pdf
• 120 years of literacy. (n.d.). retrieved from https://population.un.org/wup/Publications/Files /WUP2018-PopFacts_2018-1.pdf