Feelings Towards Sustainable Technologies

Writing for Engineering

Antonio Johnson

February 24, 2025

Technology is used on a day-to-day basis and it has proven to be very useful. With technology people can be up to date with events happening around the world. Furthermore, technology can help with interactions between individuals which is highly common. In general, many activates can be done with the use of technology. The article, The Impact of Sustainable Technologies in the Perceived Well-being: The Role of Intrinsic Motivations by Catarina Neves, Tiago Oliveira, and Stylianos Karata’s was mainly about a study of how individuals feel about sustainable technologies and whether or not they are pleased with the results of having them. Sustainable technologies are used as strategies to support the environment and help prevent issues such as climate change. Some examples of sustainable technologies would be solar panels which use sunlight for electricity, and wind turbines which help gain electricity from the wind. The purpose of this research is to inform environmental engineers on the impact sustainable technologies have on people. Neves used rhetorical questions to intrigue environmental engineers into finding out how individuals feel about sustainable technologies. Neves also used word choice to describe the reactions or feelings of individuals towards sustainable technologies during his research. 

By using rhetorical questions, Neves intrigues environmental engineers to learning about how people feel about sustainable technologies. In addition, rhetorical questions can give the reader an idea of what the article will be focused on. The first question Neves asked near the beginning of the text was “what are the inner motivations of consumers to use sustainable technologies?” (Neves et al, 2024). Neves used this question for the readers to know that the research he’s conducting will be focused on why people depend on sustainable technologies or what do they expect from them. He also put this question in the first few paragraphs of the text, letting the readers know about the goal of his research. Another rhetorical question Neves used was right after the first which was “what is the impact of sustainable technologies on an individual’s well-being?” (Neves et al, 2024). While the first question was about what individuals expect from the usage of sustainable technologies, this question focuses on the aftermath of sustainable technologies being used and how people feel about it. These questions can help environmental scientists find out whether or not sustainable technologies are useful judging by how individuals feel towards them. Therefore, the rhetorical questions help provide an idea of what the entire research will focus on.

By using word choice, Neves describes to other environmental scientists how people feel about sustainable technologies. The word choice helps provide a clear idea of whether or not people are satisfied with sustainable technologies being used. While Neves describes his research, he mentioned that “regarding extrinsic and intrinsic motivations, both are significant to sustainable technologies use and satisfaction” (Neves et al, 2024). Neves used the terms “extrinsic” and “intrinsic” to describe how people think of sustainable technologies. In this case, an extrinsic motivation would be the interest in using sustainable technologies to help keep the environment in good condition whereas an intrinsic motivation is more about the enjoyment and satisfaction people have towards sustainable technologies. While providing statistics on individual feelings towards sustainable technologies, use multiple words and phrases to differentiate those feelings, some of which were perceived enjoyment, perceived well-being, perceived usefulness, and finally satisfaction (Neves et al, 2024). Perceived enjoyment means that the individuals that were sampled, were content with the use of sustainable technologies while perceived well-being means the individuals had an improvement in their overall behavior as a result from sustainable technologies. Furthermore, perceived usefulness means that individuals found the sustainable technologies to be worth using and satisfaction meant that they were pleased with the results. These differed meanings helped Neves to collect data on the reactions people have towards sustainable technologies and to organize the data in different groups to make it clear to environmental engineers of how positive people felt about them.

 In conclusion, Neves was explaining to other environmental engineers how sustainable technologies impact individuals. His study was mainly focusing on the reactions people have along with the motivations to use sustainable technologies. By using rhetorical questions, Neves reveals that his research is meant to answer what motivations consumers have to use sustainable technologies and how do they impact an individual’s well-being. By using phrases such as extrinsic motivations and intrinsic motivations, Neves was specifically describing the way individuals feel about sustainable technologies before and after experiencing them.

References

Neves, C et al. (2024). The Impact of Sustainable Technologies in the Perceived Well-being: The Role of Intrinsic Motivations. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 3873-3884.