subject: As Mobile Wimax Creeps Into Harrisburg, Habits Change [print this page] The habits and rituals of society are entirely dependent on the circumstances and times in which we live. If we take a minute to reflect on past societies in history, its not hard to notice the different ways in which people adjusted to the means of technology, communication, and different lifestyles that were available to them. During the middle ages, for example, a lack of printing presses and other forms of technology used to disperse information amounted for a highly illiterate and undereducated society. Today, in contrast, we have millions of forms of sharing our ideas, making for a highly literate and advanced population.
From small towns to villages throughout the world, wireless internet is enabling people to share information and ideas at rapid speeds and with few restrictions. In the United States, places like Harrisburg are manifesting this acceptance and use of new forms of mobile broadband in the way in which people are both working and communicating with one another. This exemplifies a change in society and a change in habits. While more people alter their lifestyles to meet the growing demand of changing commerce and so forth, their mobile electronic devices become essential tools of productivity. The implications of new services and how they affect society on the whole are often hard to read at first, though their importance is widely felt.
Inventions such as the automobile and the television had lasting repercussions on how we communicate with one another, travel and experience the world. These devices, though theyve undergone numerous improvements over the years, are quintessential examples of how a powerful invention, good, or service can completely change the ways in which societies function. Internet is no different, and the introduction of 4G networks in towns like Harrisburg and Atlanta is a blatant indication of the changing habits that are soon to sweep over these places, and probably the world.
Predicting the time it might take for the technology to have an affect on the habits of society is anyones guess. Still, the way the internet is traveling, with its abundance of tools and resources designed specifically to connect people and tap into their most poignant interests, the time it takes is collapsing tremendously. 4G networks are allowing people across vast distances to share their immediate thoughts in words and pictures, all with the few taps of a finger. We have, in essence, come to think by means of our computers and smart phones. Each decision we make is in some sense filtered through the concept that there must be a way of sharing this thought or action. This doesnt just apply to work-related habits, but common and trite daily occurrences as well. With mobile broadband, people find themselves sharing their thoughts by means of tweets and status updates without even realizing that this technology has only recently become popular. In some ways, the introduction of these new technologies is forgotten so quickly, we neglect to understand that the habits of society are unduly shaped by the technology.
