Politics plays a major role in the creation and formulation of the modern world, which in turn means it plays a major role in the creation and formulation modern technology, too, as technology is a zeitgeist of the modern world that we live in. But, this isn’t just a one way street. Oh, no, technology does its fair share in helping to change the face-off technology, as well.
To see some of the ways in which technology is changing the face of politics, make sure to read on.
The way technology is altering social class
Social class is inexplicably linked with politics even when a politician or their manifesto doesn’t discuss it, that are no two ways about that. This is because everything that a politician does (or sometimes doesn’t do) has a direct impact on the lives of everybody, from those atop of the class pyramid to those at the bottom. So, this means that anything that alters social class then, naturally, alters politics in turn.
And, technology is something that is in fact altering social class, and it is doing so in many different ways. One way in which it is doing so is by the way it is making more things desirable. You see, when the latest technologies come out, i.e. when the newest and most up-to-date versions of the iPhone come out, there are a whole host of people desiring to own them, no matter their price. And, what this then does is create an ever bigger divide between the two ends of the social class pyramids: those that can afford these new technologies (otherwise known as the ‘super-haves’) and those that cannot. And anything that forges a divide in social class changes it, thus changing politics.
The way technology is altering the world of work
The world of work is something is also inexplicably linked to the world of politics, whether it is a point of interest in a particular manifesto or not.
And, as you can probably guess, the world of work is being impacted by technology, too. The way it is being impacted is through something known as automation, the act of a person being made redundant by a piece of technology that does the job they used to do. What this means is that now, more and more people are finding themselves quite literally redundant because of a piece of tech, thus meaning more and more people are out of work. It then falls to politicians to sort this state of worklessness out.
The way technology is altering the voting system
Yes, the voting system, too, is being changed directly by technology, and many would say for the better.
It is being changed by the likes of Smartmatic, who are introducing new forms of voting that use facial biometric data to make voting safer — basically, this means our faces will soon be able to be used as authentication, meaning identifies cannot be stolen or used during the voting process. What’s more, this kind of technology may even result in the ability to place votes via our phones, meaning trips to the polling station could soon be a thing of the past and that we may see voting numbers increase tenfold.
As you can see, whether it be indirectly or directly, technology is changing the world of politics. It is changing it by creating new problems for politicians to face, it is changing it by making voting far easier and far more accessible to everyone. So, the only thing left to say is kudos, technology!
