Concept of Technology, Consumption, and Production in the Business World

The Social Context of Business
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The Social Context of Business
When I started this course, my general expectations were to learn about how businesses and the overall corporate world interact with society. Some of the key issues I expected to learn were in relation to capitalism, corporate social responsibility, technology and its impact on business and society, and sustainability. I will say that I have not been disappointed because I have been able to understand some key concepts, especially when it comes to technology and capitalism. Thus, my reflection in this paper will focus on how my understanding of some of the key concepts has developed throughout the course, based on the course readings, class discussions, interaction with other people, and what I have learned from media sources during the period of this course.
In this paper, I will reflect on the themes of technology and consumption and production. Under the first theme, I will discuss how my position on technological unemployment has developed throughout the course. Under the second theme of consumption and production, I will discuss how my position on sharing has developed from the beginning of the course. These two subthemes are important because they do not only reveal the current state of affairs in the business world but also reveal how the future of the business world and the society at large looks like.
Personal Development on the Concept of Technology and Technological Unemployment
At the beginning of the course, I believed that life will actually be miserable once the era of technological unemployment took over. I never once believed that life would be meaningful without employment, yet through our course readings and class discussions, it has dawned to me that a post-work world is quite possible and people will still find meaning in life. As revealed by Danaher (2017 p.56) individuals are able to lead a meaningful life if they can be able to achieve the outcomes they set out to achieve. What does this mean in a world of technological unemployment? This is a question I have asked myself throughout the course and one thing has become clear. It has become evident that for people to find meaning in a post-work world, they need to become one with technology. Human beings, who in this case are the ones to face technological unemployment, will be one and the same with technology, and ultimately, technology will not be a threat to their ability to work. Further, technology affects the market economy as well as other areas of life that give meaning to life. Without the market, it would be difficult to produce outcomes that have value and without value, outcomes should not matter. In addition, a post-work world in which people do not need to work does not necessarily mean that it will free up people to do other things. As revealed by Danaher (2017 p.54), work is an incentive for people to push themselves harder, which also creates meaning. This course revealed that the idea of a post-work world where people still fund meaning is still problematic, although it is imaginable.
In addition, my belief has always been that a post-work world will only exist because people will not be able to work due to lack of work. However, our class discussions also revealed that some people will not need to work. While the idea of a post-work world where people will not need to work seems pleasing, there are still worries that did not settle down for me, even after going through this course. For instance, as revealed by McAfee and Brynjolfsson(2016 p.147), the current decrease in participation in the workforce already poses some great risks to society, such as increased crime and drug use. What will, then, happen when more people lose employment as more jobs continue being taken up by machines and other technologies? What incentives will people be provided with to ensure that they still find meaning even when they do not need to work? I understand that the threat of technological unemployment is not looming (McAfee & Brynjolfsson, 2016 p.146) and some of the discussions I have had with my peers reveal that young people are not worried about technological unemployment. If anything, they believe that technology provides new opportunities and will continue doing so as long as people are ready for change and are willing to embrace creativity.
However, through this course, I have learned that even if technological unemployment happened sooner than expected, there are possible solutions to the issue. I have learned that people would rather be proactive than reactive when dealing with issues relating to technology, given that technology is developing at a faster rate than our ability to adapt. Some of those solutions, such as charging a fee for personal data collected on the internet by businesses (LaGrandeur & Hughes, 2017 p.10) seem viable, although the concept of sharing might impede it. Some companies are already sharing consumer data even when it comes at no cost and it is possible that when they start getting charged, they will also collaborate in consuming such data.
Personal Development on the Concept of Sharing and Collaborative Consumption
One argument that I found quite interesting was on the concept of sharing, and more specifically, pseudo-sharing. In class, it was also referred to as collaborative consumption. Before the beginning of the course, I thought that sharing in current times is only as a result of economic pressures. I thought that people want to share a workspace because they cannot afford a personal workspace, or people want to share a ride because they want to share the commute expenses. My position has since changed, thanks to our class discussions and a few interactions with people around me. I now understand that sharing, or to be more specific, collaborative consumption, has become widespread due to social pressures too. I recently came across an article that revealed that people have gained a renewed appreciation for community, which ...