Technological Advancement

How far technology has evolved

Today, our society revolves around technology. Ever since the 1900’s, technology was a fascinating creation. I remember having a TV as big as my living room, adjusting the radio antenna to get reception, and a flip phone that could only call. Meanwhile, technology has evolved drastically since then, most of these features could be found in a modern-day phone. I always wonder how something so small could do so much. Technology has exponentially advanced in the recent years and tech consumers are always striving for the newest and fastest thing. This is great, our society is faster, smarter, and more efficient, but is technology advancing too quick? I am going to talk about how the rate of technology is advancing too fast and how it will do us harm us more than good. 

Technology is our friend, right?

        Technology, we love it; life is easier when technology is involved. Technology comes in many shapes and forms. The rate of tech has tremendously advanced over the years, we now have self-driving cars, automatic vacuums, and even robots. They are interesting and cool! Many people may not own those things, although we do have other technology that helps our everyday life. For example, we have dishwashers, washing machines, and dryers. We may put in some work but the tech does most of it. Now, at what point will it be too advance and starts to take our job from us. Most jobs around the world uses technology to be more efficient however, technology will replace human workers soon or later. Why? because it is cheaper. People have lost jobs to robots, like car factories don’t require people to assemble cars no more because a robot could be programed to do it. In this video shows how some robots are already replacing humans https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCBbejvb7jA  Some people may argue that when robots take over one job, a new job opening gets created for them. That may be true but many times people are good in one specific field. Their next job may requires more skill and attribute they don’t have or doesn’t interest them. Hypothetical in ten or twenty years, how much jobs will be automated. Hundreds, thousands, we don’t know but at the rate technology is going it may come faster than we think. What a robot can be programmed to do may be too much of a competitor for us. The world keeps moving towards an automated world.  

How much until we stop?

New technological advancement creates more electronic waste than we expect. As companies create new technology, old tech gets put into the trash. In an article by prb.org, around 40 million metric ton of electronic waste is produced. Want to learn more? This website shows detailed information about E-waste http://www.treehugger.com/clean-technology/crazy-e-waste-statistics-explored-in-infographic.html.  Most of this waste is a combination of computers, phones and T.V. People might wonder why we throw away so much tech. It’s mainly because older technology has little to no use to us no more. Many of us may have old tech lying around the house, I know I do. Soon or later the older generation tech will become an ornament or trash. I too am a part of this growing problem, with a new phone almost every year. My old phones get put to a side or gets traded in. Most of the technology goes to a landfill but first world countries don’t keep their own trash, we ship them off. Why? Because we know the harmful effects of technology. Meanwhile, the waste gets shipped off to developing countries like China, and India. Technology has many toxic chemicals especially devices with screens. Thus, harmful effects of electronic waste cause people to have respiratory problems, digestive problems and in some cases, lead poisoning. Should we choose our new phone over clean water? We shouldn’t, but if we do, there are solutions to help lessen the amount of E-waste that goes to landfills. Here are some companies that recycles tech http://www.americanerecycling.org/memberlisting.html. Ultimately, the main cause is over production of consumer tech. We consumers demand so much that factories over produce to ensure our demands are met. Sadly, we don’t give enough time to allow old tech to get recycled or, properly and safely disposed.