Tech's Double-Edged Sword: Examining Its Benefits and Pitfalls

Technology: Beneficial or Unlucky? In positive and negative effects of technology essay this question has been answered.  Imagine living in a world where computers, cell phones any electrical devices, take over your life. Can’t even think for oneself, couldn’t talk to friends or family. Life just wouldn’t be fun. Wouldn’t be able to remember things from a child’s first step to not being able to comprehend a book. Now that would just be crazy; thinking how a technical device could do just that. Technology like a cell phone could never do such a thing, they are great technology devices to have along with computers and being able to search the world wide web, they help with daily tasks. The question is, do we rely too much on technology that has taken over our lives?

Using technology has affected many people either in a good way or a bad way. Having access to a computer helps many people, for sure those who are a student that is either in elementary, middle, high school and college. Computers are good when it comes to researching for a paper that needs to be written. Being able to type your paper is also very useful, from being able to fix a spelling error, but does this really help in the end. Humans are beginning to lose their sense of having good literacy skills. Not just computers are capable of fixing errors cells phone do the same thing, that is when we start to form bad habits; when typing on a computer we rely on such a technology device that we just type away and not considered all the errors that are being, because a computer can fix that problem. “Computers make our worst educational nightmare come true. While we bemoan the decline of literacy, computer discount words in favor of pictures and pictures in favor of video”. In the article, is “Google Making Us Stupid?’ by Nicolas Carr; talks about being able to use the internet to search for articles for research papers have been a good thing, instead of spending many hours in a library trying to find the right book for a topic, it now takes seconds to search a topic in the database. Scholars from the University College London conducted a five-year research program. They examined computer logs that documented the behavior of visitors to two popular sites, one was the British Library the other one by a U.K. educational consortium. They both provided access to journal articles and other sources of written information. From the study the scholar conducted they found out that people using the sites exhibited; “a form of skimming activity”, jumping from one source to another one and not returning to the source they have already read. They found out that they typically read no more than one or two pages before they would “bounce” out to another site. There was also evidence that they would save long articles, but never return to read the article. The authors of the study report: “It is clear that users are not reading in the traditional sense: indeed there are signs that new forms of “reading” are emerging as “power browse” horizontally through titles, contents pages, and abstracts going for quick wins. It almost seems that they go online to avoid reading in the traditional sense”.

Technology has more negative impact on humans than it has positive impacts on us. Therefore, technology has many great advantages and how it is necessary for life, from being able to communicate with another from the use of e-mail which is good for the environment by saving the use of paper. Being able to reconnect with old friends via Facebook. “The technology enables the communication among people, it has helped you to communicate with people all over the world through email, instant messaging, Skype, social media, etc.” In addition to the advantages of technology, there some disadvantages of technology and how it affects a child’s youth from the lack of imagination; because children nowadays are into playing with their phones, iPad, video games, instead of being outside and using one’s imagination. Unlike in the 90’s early 2000’s you saw children running around playing on playgrounds to riding their bikes. In fact, you see children standing around looking at their phones, checking Facebook, and taking selfies instead of seeing the world around them. The use of technology gives us the lack of privacy, you can go on google and type in someone name and you are bound to find out information on the person whom you just googled, be able to find someone address and contact information that is just a click away. Another unlucky benefit of having technology can affect one’s health, from getting tendonitis in your thumb from just playing a video game, which is a form repetitive strain by using the thumb to play video games, to the frequent use of the thumbs to press a button on an electronical device. “The technology affects on our body, it causes the neck and head pain when you look down the devices, it causes blurred vision and migraines, and eyestrain can also cause the headaches, it causes an extra layer of stress which was not found before the overuse of technology”.

The use of technology has made humans lazy, from the technology device you get from having an ‘Alexa’ machine, which you say; “Alexa turn off the kitchen light” this machine will turn off your kitchen light. Yet modern technology has come in handy with the use of technology being used in medicine, from a robot doing a producer and being in the OR less amount of time than usually. Does that mean that surgeon is lazy or is it a better way to perform a certain surgery, do you risk your life if a machine like a robotic surgery decided to quit working, because we all know that technology has glitches. In addition to technology making humans lazy, humans are too distracted on their phones, and tablets that we just stop communicating that we forget to live in the moment when friends get together for a coffee. Technology is a; “Time killer When we are busy watching our favorite YouTube videos or vlogs ,thinking it will only be for 10 mins .We don’t realize the hours that fly by until we check the clock again”.

Today humans mock the use of technology by creating ‘memes’, one single picture says a thousand words. From a ‘meme’ that has a crowd of people being at a concert with their phones out taking pictures and videos we just don’t live in the moment of what is actually going on, we rely on cells phones to capture the moment; like looking through a mirror, where you actually at the concert and not enjoying the concert with friends? “It seems we are using technology to arrange the world, so we don't have to experience it”. Another ‘meme’ that is floating out there on the internet, there is a picture of a child sitting on the same couch as grown up both are on their cell phones, and there is a big cell phone that separate the two. Humans are so distracted with their cells phones that even parents don’t pay attention to a child and the child is also so involved in having a cell phone that they don’t know what is going on around them.

Technology has many beneficial from being able to communicate with another from the use of a computer or cell phone. Being able to browse the world wide web to find out information from around the world. On the other hand, technology can be unlucky, from losing the ability of literacy not being able to fix errors but relying on a technology device. Humans don’t realize that we are losing ourselves when relying on technology we become disconnected from the world, all because people can’t live out with their phones, computers, tablets, video games, etc. We live in a world that people rely on technology to get through their day; what would we do if technology would decided to just quit or fail on us?

Works Cited

• “What are the Positive and Negative Effects of Technology.” Quora, 6 [ Oct 2, 2018] https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-positive-and-negative-effects-of-technology . Accessed 11 Feb. 2019
• Carr, Nicholas. “Is Google Making Us Stupid’? The Coyote Reader, 2nd ed., Fountainhead Press, 2017, pp.95-105
• Gelernter, David. “Unplugged: The Myth of Computers in the Classroom”. The Coyotes Reader, 2nd ed., Fountainhead Press 2017, pp.27-29
• [ Poster, Sinah, Vaishali] “What are the Positive and Negative Effects of Technology.” Quora, 6 [Oct 6, 2017] https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-positive-and-negative-effects-of-technology . Accessed 11 Feb. 2019
• [Poster, Smritishraddha, Suresh] “What are the Positive and Negative Effects of Technology.” Quora, 6 [Jul 8, 2018] https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-positive-and-negative-effects-of-technology . Accessed 11 Feb. 2019