Modern Time

In “Modern Times”, Chaplin acts as a factory worker, and he is responsible for the assembly production line. With the help of machine, Chaplin’s work is only need to tighten the screws with the tool that is a one-steps assist in his work. So, Chaplin needs to do the same thing repeatedly all the time. Since the company need to increase production rate and efficiency to earn more profit, the machine work faster and faster, so Chaplin also need to work as fast as he can. He works like a machine and controlled by the machine. He works as forced by the machine. Finally, He got mad and suffers the mental illness. Even after his work, he gets used to the working process and repeats the action of screwing. He screws every thing that is the circle shape, even people’s cloths’ button. As the result he was chasing by the police. The invention of the New technology may increase the production rate in the manufacture industry, help the company to earn more money. However, at the end it may also harm people, just like Chaplin in the movie, new technology badly affect him physically and mentally.

On the other hand, Chaplin’s boss asks him to test the new automatic feeding machine. In the beginning, the machine performs well, Chaplin just sit and fixed in the chair and the food will put into his mouth automatically. However, when time goes on, the feeding machine become crazy and finally out of control even the controller tries his best to repair the machine. Finally, Chaplin got hurt. All these show that, people are really lazy, they always want the new technology to do all the things for them. Maybe the new technology can achieve the goal of human’s desire, life can become more convenient and people always rely too much on them and think them reliable, in fact, the new technology is not always reliable, and finally will out of human’s control, we can’t depend too much on them.

The same as the people in the movie, I feel very convenient with using new technology, they have a lot of advantages, such as by using computer and Internet, we can know the world’s news just by clicking the website. Also, we can search the information we want from the Internet that means we can sit in our home and know everything in the world. The way I am similar with Chaplin is that I sometimes don’t feel comfortable if I can’t use the computers, that means I need to use computer and the Internet everyday. Just like the majority of Hong Kong residents, I am addicted to the Internet. Every day, when I come back to home, the first thing I do is turn on my computer and it is a repeating action, I do the same thing every day even I don’t have anything to do with the computer. In fact it is not good, it is not only wasting electricity, but also my time to doing the meaningless things. With the computer and the Internet, my life becomes systematic and entertaining but I become very lazy at the same time, just like the people in the movie. During the leisure time, I will just sit in front of the computer and using the internet for the whole day.

On the other hand, the first difference is that, nowadays the new technology is more stable and reliable. Since the technology had been already developed for a period of time, the developments are more mature and reliable, so we can trust the new invention or digital technology. And nowadays, people are always looking forward for the new invention of the technology, they will do a lot of tests without using human as the tester and they will find substitutes. When a new technology is invented, people will use it with faith instead of being afraid to use it. We control the new technology, but not they control us. Even the technology has any problem, human can stop it and take care of it, and finally make some improvements. In these days, new technologies really bring a lot of advantages to us, our life become more convenient, people rely so much on it. Therefore, I think we should strike a balance on using the new technology.