Modernization

Comment below this reaction on why you agree Anthony Gidden’s perspective best describes the process of modernization over Immanuel Wallerstein and George Ritzer? Do not use any outside resources. Only use your thoughts.

“While there are parts of every theorists view that I disagree with, I agree the most with Gidden’s idea that human control is decreasing with modernity. I agree with this because for one main reason, the idea that technology is increasingly gaining control of our societies. While robots may not ever come to rule the earth and take over, technology rules us in less obvious ways. Now a days most people own a smart phone. We rely on these to wake us up in the morning, tell us when and where to be throughout the day, and allow us to communicate with people without having to ever actually see them. Now a days people even rely on them to lock their homes. There is essentially unlimited access to knowledge, going along with Gidden’s idea that a cyber-enabled information warfare is a real and prominent threat. While in this way technology does control us, it also enables social media to have a massive impact  as well. This gives the power to people who have influence on social media and are able to control it.

Another point made by Gidden that I agree with is that tradition is largely less of an influence on us today. Society is preaching that everyone must do what THEY want and be who THEY think they are. This leads people to possible abandon traditions that they otherwise might follow. Gidden thought that this was both liberating and troubling, and I agree. We as humans are all different and I think that it is important to embrace that, but traditions also represent the cultures we come from and bring about diversity as well. He says that most-modernization our identities were attaches to the roles we play that were decided through the traditions we followed. So traditionally everyone knew where they belonged in the world and what was expected of them, but now a days this is something people have to discover. So many of us have an abundance of opportunities at our feet and we must discover where we fit into the world. I believe that this is the liberating part of modernity, but is also challenging for many.

Overall I agree with many of the ideas that Gidden has and that they accurately represent the direction in which society is still headed. I think that technology is great but also leads us to have less control of our lives, and that traditions are widely being followed less and less and society advances.”