TOEFL #2: The 21st Century; THE ERA OF CHANGE

 The 21st century has begun. What changes do you think this new century will bring? Use examples and details in your answer.

Before the beginning of 21^st century, people anticipated many revolutionary changes to happen in the next century. Starting from flying cars to 3D screens, technological development proceeding with significant speed was believed to bring things that were once considered as dreams into reality. However, people’s great failure to acknowledge the importance of rising environmental issues had led to gradual deterioration of nature and created potential possibilities of complete destruction of this planet. 21^st century is not only an era of technology but also a period of drastic environmental change that will elicit permanent alternation to every corner of this world. 

One of the noticeable changes that environmental changes could bring would be the shift in the main industry. During the last few decades, as mobile devices and personal laptops became more prevalent, IT industry has taken the big part of economic growth and technological development. However, with the exponential growth of world population and dissemination of electric devices, the world will soon encounter energy crisis and most industries including IT will wither. Consequently, energy-related industries will develop with astonishing speed and the rest of 21^st century will be the period that eagerly applies alternative energy sources to every community and establish an eco-friendly society.

Cultural change is also one of the biggest differences that could be induced by environmental degeneration. Recent effects of global warming and frequent natural disasters have destroyed homelands of numerous people. Countries like Tuvalu are sinking and desertification of vast size of lands in Asia and Africa is also accelerating. As a result, people will actively immigrate to other countries in search for favorable accommodation and eventually they will assimilate into different cultures and this process will take crucial role in building a peaceful multicultural society. Thus, cultural exchange between nations will go beyond the extent of cultural fusion and reach the level of cultural unification that could bring various ‘minjok’ into ‘one’ without any collision.

Most importantly, educational system is likely to suffer changes along with the environmental change. Since the mid-20^th century, the conventional education that emphasized subjects such as math, language, and science and enforced students to take mandatory courses slowly changed in a way that students could find their interest by their own. This new system was applied to almost every school by beginning of 21^st century in some developed nations. However, as survival will rise as one of the crucial topic of this century, students will no more be asked to study subjects they wish to study but inevitably invest more time on learning fields that can contribute to improving basic lives of people as companies will start to put more investments for its development.

There is absolutely no doubt that environmental change will bring considerable effect to the overall system that human civilization had established for the last centuries. Not to mention the big shifts in industry, culture, and education but it will also bring modifications in countless different areas. Every species that exists in this planet including humans have close relationship with the nature. Therefore we should possess the responsibility for future generations and strive to change our society through sustainable developments.