2011-02-28

Industrialization


Industrialization has changed people’s lives greatly. The changes brought people not only convenience but also bad consequences. There has been a heated debate on whether the impact is positive or negative. Some say that life was better before industrialization because life was simpler. Others think people are healthier, happier and have more freedom today. It is true that life was simpler before, but the living conditions people now have is much more convenient.  
First of all, some argue that people lived in a more natural and non-polluted environment, so they were healthier. Nevertheless, they were not aware of their health issues. Very little was discovered in the field of medicine. For instance, they used herbs to cure diseases, which was often not effective enough. Furthermore, the food they ate was mostly preserved with a lot of salt or sugar because they did not have enough technology such as refrigerators to preserve the food properly. The environment before the industrialization might have been cleaner, yet the lifestyle people had influences  their healt even more than the pollution nowadays.
Moreover, many people think that nowadays people suffer from  stress more often than those before the industrialization. In fact, before the industrialization, the big divide between social classes caused more mental and physical pressure. The lowest class had predetermined burdens. Some people were born as slaves, having to suffer from extremely heavy work and unequal life conditions. It was difficult, and mostly impossible for the lower classes to ever live a decent life. Who could live without stress under that environment?
Lastly, people debate that people before the industrialization acquired more freedom. Nonetheless, the social classes they had restrained people’s behaviour, composing social norms on them. One example was racial and sexual discriminations; such discriminations are greatly reduced nowadays. People are free from being discriminated. In addition to  mental freedom, people now have physical freedom. Thanks to technology, transportation is more convenient so that people are able to travel around the world. Without the repress of discrimination and the improvements in technology, we have more freedom these days.
The industrialization have changed the society completely. It surely has positive impacts on contemporary human beings. Tremendous improvements on people’s physical health, mental health and freedom had lead human being to better lifestyles.

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