GPS and its effects on society essay
More than 500 million people worldwide daily use the GPS, allowing anyone at any place on Earth, at almost any weather, as well as in outer space near the planet, to determine the location and speed of objects. Nowadays, GPS provides the society with hundreds possibilities; and in the next decades, the possibilities of a global positioning system will be significantly improved. Further, we’ll discuss what effects the introduction of GPS has on the life of the contemporary society.
First of all, GPS is widely applied and beneficial for military purposes, it was initially created for. Air forces are now able to land an aircraft in a zone with zero visibility. The system can track the location of the aircraft throughout the flight. GPS helps control the movement of road transport, ensuring road safety by this (Jones and Soatto 407-430). GPS is integrated in mobile phones, smart phones, PPCs and onboards. An improved version of the system is applied in electric power, telecommunications, logistics, mining, cartography, and even in agriculture. In addition, travelers, police and kindergartens can take advantage of GPS across the globe.
At the same time, the results of statistical data showed that such a fashionable and useful device as GPS-navigator gives rise to the drivers’ dependency, addiction and topographical cretinism. Moreover, in contrast to GPS’s contribution to road safety, drivers who frequently use GPS-navigators get involved in road accidents more often. However, by now, many citizens cannot even imagine how they can drive a car without this device (Courter and Ellis 1477-81).
According to researchers, when people use GPS, they stop thinking themselves and start relying on an electronic device and vehicle safety, while the human factor can be more important in some situations (Courter and Ellis 1477-81). Another important argument is that with the ability of anyone to find anyone’s location via GPS, the world can become intimidating, if all this knowledge and power gained by it is used for pressure and control, so that government won’t be able to protect their citizens. Thus, any technology entering our era can bring both positive and negative changes, but once entering our society, it can’t help affecting it.
