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Social Impact of the Car
 Automobiles
are just a part of our daily life these days. It is hard to remember
a time when cars were not a common feature on the road – for
most of us, there was no such time in our lifetimes. Sometimes it
is hard for us to even realize the huge social impact of the car.
The social impact of the car is actually very extensive. The social
impact extends beyond just the way we travel – the social
impact of the car can be felt in the way we date and mate, eat,
live, view life, and beyond.
From the very beginning. a person’s status related greatly
as to whether or not he owned an automobile. A man with a Model
T Ford was a very important man, indeed. Today, too, a person is
judged by what type of car he has, or if he even has one. Before
checking out a man or a woman as a possibility for a date, you may
just check out his or her “wheels.”
Even when automobiles were very first hitting the roads, they changed
the ways in which we date and mate. The social impact of the car
extends to what people did and do on dates. For one thing, the backseat
of a car offers so many more possibilities than a doorstep or front
porch. Who knows how many babies have been conceived in the backseats
of cars over the years?
Of course, let us back up a bit here. Before a couple on a date
hits the backseat of a car, they have been affected by cars in other
ways. The other activities that a couple does on a date are different,
as well. The couple has more possibilities. They can easily go meet
friends across town at a diner. They may even eat their dinner inside
the car at a drive-inn. And after they eat at a drive-inn, where
might they go, but a drive-inn movie theater, of course!
Besides drive-inn diners, the automobile brought about drive-up
windows at fast food restaurants. Along with the car – which
brought us speed on the road and convenience for being where we
want to be when we want to be there – we got a need for fast
food, as well. The automobile did not simply fasten our paces on
the road, the automobile quickened our pace in life. Now we must
do so many things in a day, and do them quickly. And because of
these new hurried lives that we lead, we need fast food, as well.
The social impact of the car extends to how our cities are built,
as well. People can now live further away from cities. They can
commute to work. In fact, long commutes have just become a part
of daily life. Huge strip malls have been built and gigantic super
stores – people can now drive to these and shop at them with
ease, and then they can load up all of their purchases into the
backs of their cars with ease.
Neighborhoods are being built without sidewalks because people
no longer walk anywhere… they drive. People are less likely
to be out walking in their neighborhoods and stop to talk to other
out walking. Neighbors are becoming more like strangers.
The social impact of the car is so extensive that it is almost
impossible to untangle from our daily lives. In fact, the social
impact of the car extends to how we even few life. The onset of
automobiles gave people a new freedom that they had never experienced
before. With automobiles, people could view life as an “open
road.” People could travel more to the store or even across
country. They no longer had to plan their travels around the train
schedule or other schedules.
Nothing is or was as freeing as simply being out on the open road.
The social impact of the car is so much more than any of this. There
is hardly any aspect of your American life that has not been affected
by the automobile. The social impact of the car is much more expansive
than any other modern-day invention… even more so than that
of the computer.
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