Discussion On Whether Innovation Is Always A Good Thing

In contemporary society, as the economy is advancing by leaps and bounds, the way people create new things has undergone a noticeable and far-reaching transformation, new product and new idea comes up every day. Under this circumstance, there is a widespread belief that the increasing economy in both developing and developed countries can be in large measure attributed to the function of innovation. And, the topic that ‘is innovation always a good thing? ’ has been thrown into sharp argument. In my point of view, innovation is a really good thing. But I do not think that innovation is always good. It is quite easy to understand that the innovation is really good. Because innovation brings new technology, new technology makes our life better.

For example, one of the most important inventions in twentieth century - the Internet, which supported to our lives better than before. The Internet has become embedded in every aspect of our daily lives, changing the way we interact with our family, friends, and life partners. The changes in social communication are of particular significance. Before the email came up, we can hardly connect to someone far away from us easily and immediately because the letter need time to delivery. Although traditional and analogue communication ways still have their place in communication sectors, new technologies are continuing to gain ground day by day, changing our communication ways and possibilities—particularly among younger generations. The Internet has removed all times and distances barriers, the traditional constraints of space and time disappeared. And there is a wide range of communicative possibilities.

Now everyone is connected to everyone else in a simpler, more accessible, and more immediate way; we can conduct part of our personal relationships using our laptops, smart phones, and tablets all around world at any time. I think the real value of Internet is that you can stay in touch from moment to moment with the people who really matters to you. Social media let you share emotions and information; they get people and ideas in touch instantly without frontiers. Even we students use Internet to study and work interactively with one another. We could use Google to search any information we need, download PowerPoint or upload assignment through Black Board, online reading or writing, even have video course. People can use the Internet to create and share knowledge and develop new ways of teaching and learning at anytime, anywhere, by using any device. I believe this is a good improvement in the education field.

The web is a strong resource for enhancing the process of building knowledge. With the help of the Internet, communicating become convenient, getting information become easier, connecting to the world become possible, learning become more flexible. The Internet did make our life much more convenient than before. In the commercial field, the Internet has strongly impacted the recent business model. Twenty years ago, if a company want to do some advertisements or promotions, they usually put ads in the local paper, joined a local networking organization to attract customers and hoped the local customers needed what they had to offer. All that changed because of the inception of the Internet. A business is no longer dependent on its local customer base for its survival, what companies need to do in recent days is getting online and put all the information on the Internet. I believe many people have the experience of shopping online, we could buy many stuffs we need in ‘Amazon’ at home with click of our fingers without walking out to shopping mall.

Also, by connecting to the Internet, working or collaboration with other businesses and professionals is much more simplified. Online meeting or video talk make collaborating on projects with people all over the world as easy as logging onto a website. And, Internet technology provides better opportunities of companies to establish distinctive strategic positioning than did previous generations of information technology, businessman could use the mass media to find new product ideas, new methods of creating products and pricing information. A business can also research the competition to see what products and services are offered. If a company is looking to expand into a new market or particular location, the Internet can be used to research the basic information of this potential mark, what its needs, what customers like, and what products and services would sell best in that area. All this shows that Internet is changing the recent business model. Although online security and privacy are critical, the Internet still bring a lot of benefits in commercial field.

However, every coin has two sides, so does the good Internet. Nowadays in my country, China, children using the Internet has become a big concern. Most parents do not realize the risks and dangers are existed when their children log onto the Internet. When little children using the Internet, they could be attracted into something dangerous easily. For example, when children talk to someone online, they do not realize they might be talking with a bad guy. And some children are so fascinated with online games that they forget about their homework, some even escaped from school. This influenced their studies badly. In addition, the social isolation is increasing because of the Internet, children are spending more time playing video games, learning how to use new modern technologies, using social networks and they neglect their real life. New technology has replaced our old way in interacting.

In China, when you get out walking on the street or take public transportations, you could see almost everyone are heading down and focusing on their smart-phone. Even in friend dating or family dinner, people just surfing the Internet, checking social media, or online chatting. People seems to be more willing to find interesting things in virtual Internet world rather than share and spend time with their real friends or family nearby. Sometimes five or six people sit at the table waiting for meal or meeting and all of them play with their mobile phone, no any communication and nobody talking. This phenomenon, which make dating and family dinner a very embarrassing atmosphere, is quite usual in China nowadays.

So in some aspects, the Internet do not make people closer. On the contrary, the Internet make close friends and family members even far away. What’s more, the potential dangers, and some pornographic or violent contents also have bad influence on the younger generations. The Internet technology have negative impact on commercial as well. Online security and privacy issues are extremely notable for companies. Technical glitches or malicious hackers can expose sensitive data and information. Hacker can easily hack into a companies’ computer or systems to steal trade secrets like commercial method, future strategy, exclusive formula, etc. Secrets and privacy might be opened to your competitors, which means your competitors know exactly what your weaknesses are.

Also, with the development of online shopping, many small traditional stores faced a lot of competitions and pressures. Some small business went out of business and many employees lost their jobs. All this shows that great invention as the Internet technology, it still has some negative aspects, not to mention some other bad inventions like drugs, nuclear weapons, etc. All in all, is innovation always a good thing? I think the answers depend on our uses of it that are good or bad. Technology has both good and bad aspects – and so does innovation. Innovation leads to great the improvement of medical level that human beings’ expected life have extended from 60 years old to 80 years. Innovation has also led to the creation of the nuclear weapon that make it possible to destroy a country in one second.