Shaylen Perry

Professor Carmack

SOC 1101.512

5 December 2019

Health and Technology

Technology has had a huge impact on several different aspects in life. One of the biggest,

being health. The role of technology has changed tremendously in the last couple decade, due to

the advancements and changes happening. Today, technology plays a vital role in the social

construction of health. For example, “The idea of the social construction of health emphasizes

the socio-cultural aspects of the discipline’s approach to physical, objectively definable

phenomena.” (Giddens 1983). This is stating that the social construction of health attempts to

understand the physical phenomena in the health field, this can be shown through technology.

Technology has slowly gained a bigger and bigger role in the health field. One article

outlining the benefits of technology in healthcare states that it can impact, “…electronic health

records…personalized treatment…telehealth…surgical technology…artificial technology…”

(Scherman 2019). The improvements of technology are greatly improving the health field,

however, there are still some disadvantages. For example, “In 2015, hackers stole records for

almost 80 million Anthem customers and employees, the second-largest health insurance

company in the US” (Banova 2019). Technology is computer operated, which means there is

always something that could go wrong- it’s inevitable. Technology proves to have tons of

advantages, but there are some disadvantages that could be detrimental.

 I feel like the increase in technology will lead to an increase in health inequity. One

article state, “But people will not benefit from these changes unless they have reliable access.

We know that low-income populations are more likely to require healthcare. But they are also

more likely to have unreliable or unstable access to technology.” (Gonzales 2017). People in

lower income areas are the ones that most commonly need the most healthcare, but they are also

the least likely to have access to the technology needed and being used today. This is just making

the health inequity worse and worse. Although the technology might help the rich, those less

fortunate that usually need it most, are not going to see the benefits.

The sociological perspective this connects to most closely is the conflict theory. I think

this, because the conflict theory states that, “Conflict theory views social and economic

institutions as tools of the struggle between groups or classes, used to maintain inequality and the

dominance of the ruling class.” (Chappelow 2019). This is saying that in order for social order to

maintain, there has to be conflict. The conflict in this scenario is the availability to receive the

technological resources. Many poor people cannot receive the benefits of technology because

they either cannot afford it or don’t have access to it.