The majority of western culture seems to be reliant on technology, but does technology facilitate or hinder us? As a biased approach I would strongly suggest that technology improves our quality of life to the extent that if it were removed from our society, our quality of life would suffer dramatically. In my life I am aided by technology every day so I have chosen three of the most essential and life altering pieces of technology that affect me at present: Printers, search engines and the internet.
Considering the printer first, disregarding my course and interests, the printer as a whole has allowed life, particularly in western culture, to move at a much faster pace. Consider the expense and availability of books be it printers were removed. Disregard the time it takes for a person to write the original text, a book can now be printed within 48 hours (http://www.48hrbooks.com/) with little expense incurred. Assuming professional writers were to be employed; writing on average 60 words p/minute. An average book consists of approximately 90000 words; (90000wrds/ 60wrds p/m= 25hrs) so 25 hours of labour. £4.98(National Minimum wage 2012)*25 = £124.50 for each employee with at least 3 days to write, not taking into account the cost of paper, ink, binding and distribution.
However, the above is just an example of world-wide use for the printer. A personal use for printing, in my experience is the printing of documentation. Flights, hotels, trains and buses, have all now branched out to the technology age; sending confirmation and documentation through email. This allows for customers to print out their documentation if and when necessary. For my part I find it difficult to retain documentation that in most cases is vital to events in my life i.e. Flights.
Search Engines; however insignificant or simple people may consider the search engine to be, they are a