Effects of Modernity

The old-traditional way of life has vanished for ever. Today only villages and some small towns remind us of this kind of life, and as time passes, more people choose to abandon traditional way of life, to move to the "big city". Modern way of life has nothing in common with the traditional one. Human habits, values, norms have changed. The most important of these social changes can be observed in human relationships, family economy, education, government, health, and religion. To be able to examine these changes, one has to compare traditional and modern way of life.

In traditional societies, to begin with, there is a strong fellow-feeling; everybody is considered a friend and is expected to act this way, in case of personal or family crisis. In every-day life one would be happy to lend his neighbour anything he is asked without expecting anything in return. This fellow-feeling does not exist in modern cities, where the general rule taught to city-people when they are still children is: trust no one. The size and density of population, anonymity and high rate of criminality may be responsible for this kind of behaviour. Despite the fact that each city group chooses to behave this way for different reasons, the result will always be the same (Gans: 235-237).

In addition to the change in human behaviour towards people outside his family, there is change in family life as well. The extended family providing all means of socialization and economic production, became nuclear, still having some of its socialization functions, but up to a point, and finally considered more as a unit of consumption rather than a unit of production (Macionis: 460-461).

Furthermore, education changed. Pre-industrial societies addressed education only to the elite and the rich. Being educated at that time was considered a privilege. In modern societies, however, basic education is open for everyone, and the number of persons achieving higher education is rising all the time, while the number of illiterate is diminishing (Macionis: 514-515).

The most important changes were brought in the economy and the way of earning income. Industrialization turned everything upside-down in this sector of human activity. In pre-industrial societies income and the economy as a whole, were based on agriculture and manufacturing in home. Wealth was not something to be pursued, the character and personality of the individual had greater value than his wealth: "the hard-working poor man is superior to the lazy rich man" (Vidich: 230). In modern economies everything is based on industrial mass production and white-collar jobs have increased. The pursuit for wealth is so high that if we compare it with traditional societies, modern ones would look corrupted (Macionis: 408).

The fact that traditional societies were small in size, made possible for anyone to participate with an active and direct way in the government of his community. "Every one is urged and invited to attend public meetings, and everyone is urged to vote not as a duty but as a privilege" (Vidich: 229). In modern societies government is done indirectly and people have little participation in decision making. In addition, state intervenes in most aspects of human activity (Macionis: 437).

Moreover, traditional societies had limited technology, both in the production of food and in medicine, which caused shortages in