Technology - a New World

Technology: A New World

Technology evolves and improves everyday, becoming more influential than ever in our everyday lives. With this growth, we see advances beyond what we could ever imagine before, in areas such as medical science, communication, and connectivity. However, with these advancements we see issues such as addiction, infringement of privacy, and constant distraction. But, is technology really to blame? Or is it people that use modern technology irresponsibly?

Society has developed invaluable tools that improve the way we do things everyday. Communication is easier today than ever before, moving beyond simple phone conversations and text messages. Numerous different social media platforms allow people to share, photos and personal thoughts in real time, globally. With roughly 2.6 billion users, this new technology allows live updates from government officials on global and national events, as well as opening job opportunities in marketing, and teaching. We also see incredible accomplishments in saving our environment. Invasive species are one of the leading causes of extinction, and cause over $314 billion of damage in the US alone (Borenstein, Robots, high-tech tools join battle against invasive species). A robot called the Guardian LF1 tackled an invasive species known as Lionfish had spread throughout the Caribbean. The fish is venomous, and deadly. The LF1 would gently shock the Lionfish, and suck the live fish into a tube. In a span of 2 days, the LF1 successfully caught 15 fish in its still experimental stages. The fish are then used in a top chef cooking competition, Lionfish sells for about $10 dollars a pound (Borenstein). A small example of the great, positive, impact that technology has today.

However, many argue that modern technology has a negative effect on our new generations. Nicholas Carr wrote an article titled “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, where he talks about how modern technology is changing how our brain works, and negatively impacts things such as our attention, and comprehension. He gives examples and quotes of people that have lost “the ability to read and absorb a longish article on the web or in print” (Carr) as a result of spending too much time on the internet. Another article describes the purpose of new social media technology, “We’re lonely, but we’re afraid of intimacy. And so from social networks to sociable robots, we’re designing technologies that will give us the illusion of companionship without the demands of friendship” (Sandra, Does technology impact culture?). Others go as far as to say that technology is a root cause for major health problems such as obesity and seizures (Hall, Livestrong) as well as eyestrain and headaches. But after looking at all of these arguments and claims put forward, we see a major recurring flaw in all of their statements. So is technology negatively impacting our society, or not?

Before directly answering that question, we need to understand what technology is exactly. The literal definition of technology on the Merriam Webster website is “the practical application of knowledge especially in a particular area”. It’s very clear that technology is not a living thing, it is simply a tool, created by the application of knowledge that we have discovered over the hundreds of millenium that we have existed. By understanding this simple fact, we see just how ridiculous and immature it would be to blame reduced attention, physical and mental health problems on technology. To illustrate, it would be similar to blaming a knife for cutting you, while you cut vegetables. It would be silly and stupid. The same principle applies to modern technology. We use and bend it to our will, it only does what we tell it to do. It becomes clear that all of these problems are because of human negligence. The lack of self-control and self-discipline can cause things such as eyestrain and seizures. The cowardice of people causes to them have a solely digital social life. Even in current experiments such as self-driven cars, they are hard-wired to follow local traffic laws, and also to adapt to the speed of cars around it. It’s