Final answer:
Technological advancements and modernization significantly contribute to social change by influencing various aspects of life, leading to both social homogenization and fragmentation. However, they can also lead to technological inequality. Social movements, like those by Indigenous groups for land and cultural conservation, leverage technology as a pivotal part of their evolution and impact.
Step-by-step explanation:
When considering the joint evolution of technology and social systems, one can observe that technology and social institutions, population, and the environment can all incite significant social change.
This process is best understood by observing a complete social setting and all that it entails, including the evolutionary model of technological change, which consists of a breakthrough in one form of technology that leads to variations, the emergence of a prototype, followed by a period of adjustments, and occasionally interrupted by another breakthrough.
Modernization plays a crucial role in relation to social change, as demonstrated by the advent of information technologies like computers, the Internet, and cell phones, which have irrevocably altered communication, work, learning, shopping, navigating, and entertainment methodologies.
This modernization leads to both social homogenization and social fragmentation, as seen in the diverse impacts of new technologies on different cultures, sometimes causing friction with traditional norms of interaction.
Advancements in technology also reflect on technological inequality, with certain individuals or groups benefiting more than others, potentially leading to job loss, pollution, and privacy issues among the less fortunate.
Engineers address societal problems by applying creativity and judgment within broader social structures to solve complex engineering issues.
The conversance between technology and societal norms can be further exemplified by studying the ways in which Indigenous groups have formed social movements to protect native lands and cultures, leveraging the technology available to them.