A New Form of Inequality

I want to talk about  a new form of inequality coming along with the rapid development of technology. These days, I am so excited to learn and witness the state-of-the-art  facilities made available by modern technologies and the prospect they promise; however, I am at the same time feel sad and worried about the huge number of people, children in particular, who still spend their days worrying where their next meal would come from. When we played with the "littleBits" the other day in class, while thrilled and impressed by its creativity, I wished every child, including my own daughter, would be able to have one, until I realized that it was so unlikely to happen with the current price it was sold at. I felt disappointed. Why couldn't they make it more affordable?

It reminded me of another thing I recently read from the news. Going back home to their families for the Chinese New Year is such a big deal for most Chinese people. However, train tickets were sold out within minutes or even seconds once they were made  available online, leaving tens of thousands of labor workers' hours of waiting in queue in front of ticket windows in vain. For these people, who had worked so hard all over the country throughout the whole year and been living on the hope of going back home for the most important festival and reuniting with their family, they didn't even know who they should blame for the depriving their equal opportunities of getting a train ticket. For them, Internet and all those fancy technologies are so far away and inaccessible, and some of them don't even have cell phones. And the same thing happens to millions of children who live and go to school in under-developed areas. 

In my opinion, in terms of the development of modern technology, how we could make it more affordable and accessible for everyone in the world should be the most pressing issue and biggest challenge not only for the government, but also for corporations which should share equal social responsibilities. Otherwise, the ever-increasing gap and inequality would make "no child is left behind" stay only as a dream.