Charles F. Kettering once said, “The price of progress is trouble.” Charles’ words are very true, considering all of the problems that today’s society face. In order to be successful or to advance, a person must deal with the side effects. Any new technology or invention is not created without some sort of failure. It takes trial and error to reach a successful outcome. No matter what kind of advancement is being made, whether it is a patent or a scientific breakthrough, it takes a great amount of effort to reach that point. Nothing amazing is just given, it has to be earned. Charles F. Kettering’s wise words will be displayed through successful people who faced struggles, problems caused by technological advancement, and issues with urban development.
Many successful individuals have pasts that most people are not aware of. In order to get where they are today, people such as Walt Disney and Steve Jobs suffered hardships in their lives. Probably one of the most famous examples of this is Walt Disney, who was fired from a newspaper called the Kansas City Star. He was fired because he “lacked imagination and had no good ideas.” This might sound absurd to some people, because he played a prominent part in many humans’ childhoods. Steve Jobs is known as the co-founder of Apple, but he was not always successful: he was a college dropout and a fired tech executive. Some tend to have a negative view on college dropouts, but some dropouts go on to accomplish amazing things. Jobs only attended Reed College for about six months before dropping out because he believed it was too expensive. However, the typography aesthetic of the first Mac was because of the calligraphy class that Steve took after dropping out; if he never dropped out, the Mac would not be the way it is today. He was even fired from his own company, but bought Pixar and created the company NeXT while he was gone. He eventually came back and became one of the most successful people to this day. His company created many new forms of technology, such as the iPhone.
Mobile phones, such as the iPhone or an Android, are one of the most revolutionary technologies the world has seen. While some people still use flip phones, most of the population owns a smartphone. This invention completely changed the way people live. Not only can someone call and text, they are also able to email, have social media, have access to an extensive music library, and much more. The smartphone also allows people to create and download all sorts of applications to use in everyday life. While this is a very helpful and great item, it also creates some problems, such as health risks. According to South University, students from the university in an Environmental Health course swabbed sixty phones that belonged to students. They discovered that many of the phones were polluted with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. If it infects a person, it can be a very painful and sometimes life-threatening infection. While the mobile phone can cause illnesses, it can also prove to be a distraction when driving. Stated by the Huffington Post, the probability that a motor vehicle crash involved a mobile phone is 1 in 4 and there were 341,000 motor vehicle crashes involving cell phones in 2013. Centers for Disease and Control Prevention stated that if a person is texting while driving at 55 miles per hour, the time they use with their eyes off of the road is long enough to drive the length of an entire football field.
Urbanization is constant: the world’s population is continuously growing, and new buildings and roads are being built all the time. However, when neighborhoods are being built and parking lots are being constructed, the environment suffers. When natural landscapes are changed into urban areas, the wildlife is affected because their home has been taken away. The animals’ habitats, such as forests and lakes, are used for human resource. According to WWF Global, nearly half of the world’s forests have been destroyed and are still being removed at a rate 10x higher than the level of regrowth. Urbanization also plays a role in degradation of marine and terrestrial wildlife. There are many other problems associated with urbanization as well, such as changes in air quality and pollution. According to a journal entry called Impacts of Urbanization on Environment, human activities release many pollutants into the air; carbon monoxide, ozone, lead, and carbon dioxide are some examples of these pollutants. The article also said that urbanization resulted in the water quality being degraded because of increased sedimentation and more pollutants in runoff.
With every new advancement, there will be problems that come along with it. The same goes for people as well; in order to accomplish one’s goals, a person has to face struggles and problems. Steve Jobs was a college dropout and was fired from his own company before becoming extremely successful; Walt Disney, the man responsible for movies that played a large part in people’s childhoods, was fired from a newspaper because he apparently did not have imagination. Mobile phones have revolutionized the way people communicate and live their daily lives, but it can also be harmful. Phones are an easy way to spread germs and can pose as a distraction to people who are driving. While urbanization is necessary for the world’s growing population, it is displacing animals from their environments as well. Urbanization also results in the release of pollutants into the air and the degradation of water quality. No matter what kind of progress will be made in the future, whether it be expansion or a new invention, society has to be prepared to face the issues resulting from it.