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 ...