Humans have a long history of evolution that will continue until the end of time, it’s inevitable. But today we see a whole new set of influences and adaptations coming into play. For starters, we have new technology that is part of our daily lives which will impact how we behave and, as I recently discovered, how we look. In a recent (and rather unsettling, I must admit) study, it was discovered that young people were developing an enlarged external occipital protuberance on the back of their skulls. SciNews reports this as being a result of poor posture related to technology use. Right before our eyes, in our own generation, we’re seeing evolution at work, and even though I find it slightly terrifying and weird, it’s also super interesting. Because of this, I could see that it’s likely that we’ll evolve to be able to carry the extra strain of looking down at a phone screen or that these hooks will develop from birth, not from age-related stress. Along with the increased use of technology comes an increase in the use of social media which has a major influence on cultural evolution. Social media essentially drives what we consider to be modern culture, especially in America. If someone like say the Kardashians are wearing, eating, drinking, doing, [insert more verbs here] something, it will more than likely be a trend within a given time period. Because social media connects som many people around the world, we can see common trends and things that can connect us as a worldwide population. So we begin to see, for better or sometimes for the worse, that localized cultures begin to have outside influences.
We also are going through a period of intense, and almost irreversible, climate change. This is not only leading to obvious environmental changes but also cultural and behavioral changes (like with social media culture change, some are for the better and some for the worse). In terms of cultural change, we see an increase in political activity based on climate change at the individual level and on the global governmental scale. There have been marches and demonstrations, attempts, passes, and fails at legislation, and meetings with officials from all over the world. And in terms of behavior, we can see examples of this in everyday life: more people commuting by bike or bus, opting for reusable containers over single-use plastic ones, and things like that. But even with the good, there is the bad. As the Earth heats up, we’ve seen increasingly warmer summers and in my own experience, this last winter was the first “white Christmas” I’ve seen since middle school, it seems as though each heavy and lasting snowfall starts later and later each year. This will inevitably take a toll on our bodies as we will have to adjust to living in a different climate that will begin to offer different resources at different times.
Everything is evolving, and us with it. Humans have a large impact on the direction of the Earth and our own fate, and it’s interesting to look at the current results and to think about the ones that have yet to happen.
Source: http://www.sci-news.com/medicine/young-people-enlarged-external-occipital-protuberance-07325.html
Hello Jill!
I really enjoyed reading your final blog post about the future of humans. I like how you focused majorly, not only on the DNA evolution, but also the environmental evolution regarding to climate change that we see occurring right in front of our eyes. You focused on today’s culture and the changes with technology and social media and culture as a whole and the focus on climate change. I believe that is a very important aspect of the world’s culture. We are using the technology for amazing things. We can use technology and resources to improve our world. Your examples of commuting or using reusable containers are great examples of our our culture is changing through human behaviors to reverse climate change and help improve our world!
I really liked how you analyzed social and cultural evolution as well as environmental evolution, since I feel like those are both very important points nowadays. Your point about how we are developing enlarged features due to our use of technology is very scary to think about but at the same time makes sense. It seems like everyone is constantly looking down at their phone or other device, which makes me wonder how many people will permanently be in that posture as they get older. I think your reference to the Kardashians is very important because while everyone may think social media is harmless, it can actually give voices to people with very extreme and possibly dangerous views. Lastly, I never thought about how winter coming later and later could affect our bodies and how we behave. This is a nerve-wracking idea that could spell big trouble in the future.