Critique Paper on the following article: “Technology and Culture

Influence Each Other by Charlie Gilkey”

The culture of a society is reflected in values, norms and practices. Culture observes itself
through individuals to reflect their perception, practices, values and in transfer of technology.
Technology has a crucial impact on fundamental aspects of all our cultures including language,
art, mobility, education and religion. Culture of a community acts as a standard for perceiving,
judging and evaluating the technology. As technology affects all the components of culture, it
determines the direction of cultural development. To occupy the larger cultural dimension,
technology should be in harmony with social and cultural conditions of community else there
exists a friction between technological development and preservation of cultural values. A
rational balance allows people to exercise freedom of expression in technical world which is
beyond one’s ethnicity, age, or level of education. People use it for fulfilling their fantasies but a
cultural downfall may occur due to lack of restrictions, regulation and/or consequences.
The COVID-19 pandemic changed numerous aspects of how we live but it profoundly changed
how many people worked, forcing millions to work from home. It also put a spotlight on
corporate technology and whether companies could still operate productively and efficiently with
many of their staff working at home. There was a fast adoption of home working technologies
such as Zoom, a popular video conferencing platform which reported a daily rise in meeting
participants from 10 million in December 2019 to 300 million by March 2020. And Microsoft
Teams has more than tripled the number of daily active users since late 2019. With an increased
focus on health and safety in the workplace, smart buildings can help ensure the workplace and
building environment is up to par. Smart offices use automated processes to enhance buildings
operations, from air conditioning and heating, through to lighting and security. This shift towards
a fully integrated, tech-enabled and connected network is allowing for big data analysis. For
example, the use of technology and sensors means workers may be able to know where in the
office is currently best for ‘quiet’ work, or when to avoid peak lift traffic, or where to locate
colleagues in the office, or even allocate workspaces or car parking spaces based on the person’s
itinerary and preferences. And in the new socially-distanced workplace, sensing hardware
coupled with analytics are able to plan seating allocations based upon configurable social-
distancing guidelines/regulations. This newly added feature to the pre-existing analytics tools
shows the power of utilizing data and software. We believe demand for smart office buildings
and space will grow over time. Buildings with advanced technology can support a company’s
environmental, sustainability, health and wellness objectives while also offering better overall
experience for the workforce.

The current COVID-19 restrictions have accelerated demand for other digital solutions that
enable companies to provide a safe working environment for employees, so they feel
comfortable going back to the office. As people start to return, workplace apps are evolving to
include new features focusing on health and safety. Many commonly used workplace apps
already support basic admin tasks such as booking meeting rooms and finding available hot desk
space – but these functions are now being developed further to incorporate new functions
imposed by the pandemic.