Tech-Negativity

Yaren Obando

October 17^th, 2011

Engl. 1020–Core Composition

Tech-Negativity

Technology has been a huge progress to civilization throughout history. Thanks to technology we have made our everyday tasks simpler. The modern technology has simplified and improved every part of our life. Technology is naturally seemed broadly as the positive movement towards the better future although technology has created opportunities deep in it for negative impact to take place, making it a double-edge sword. . Therefore technology is not just the positive advancement in all areas of society. Technology is also the negative advancement in society because is making us waste our human intelligence, it has damaged our society’s social skills, and because we have misused the purpose of certain creations.

This technological era is making society waste its own potential.  Technology is so common nowadays, it is so accessible, it is everywhere and we use it in a daily basis which should be good because it makes our everyday life easier, right? But really what technology is causing is an irreversible dependency on it. Our generation relies on technology too much, which is a huge problem. Each generation as time passes and technology keeps advancing is getting dumber and dumber.  A research study by The University of California shows that our skills in critical thinking and analysis have declined due to the use of computers, the internet and video games. Also due to technology and most visual media are real-time media does not allow us time for reflection, analysis or imagination. Such skills we are losing make us humans and differentiate us from animals. Most people cannot even write and spell right, and we rely on soft wares like Word that contain spell check to make our task easier. It is like we are not learning anything, calculators per say. We cannot even do simple math in our head anymore, and we get used to use calculators all the time. We can be lazy and not have to worry about anything because there is a computer, machine or device that will do anything for us. People can say that we need human technology to invent stuff, but really the only people who are fully are using their human intelligence are the people who invent these devices, and everybody else is using their devices. Is this really how technology betters our society?

Modern technology has allowed people to communicate with just about anyone they want to at any given time and although this may sound like a good thing, the fact remains that people do not interact personally with one another as often as they used to. This has created a barrier in personable, face-to-face communication amongst people because they no longer have that interaction. Technology has created this issue through social networking websites like Skype, Facebook and Match.com, where people all over the world can communicate and find the love of their life. But really they cannot be sure of who they really are talking to, or who is at the other end of the computer. Advanced phones and texting are helping this issue increment in number; it is already bad to call somebody instead of talking face-to-face. Nowadays people especially teens do not even bother to call anymore; they use texting to communicate with everybody from anywhere. An article published in The New York Times discusses how teenagers in average send hundred or more text messages per day, and spend seven to eight hours using all sorts of electronic devices and this behavior affects them now and it carries social repercussions for their future. Cyber-bullying and Sexting are just a couple of to mention that could really affect teens mentally and emotionally. Factors like having a way to reach anybody, anywhere and around the clock might improve communication to certain extend but as truly result, society is losing that physical and emotional interaction we all need. People are becoming lazier, and they do not feel the dire need to step outside of their home and socialize, such as participating in a rousing game of basketball with friends, meeting a friend at the movies, etc.

Today’s society frequently misuses the purpose of technology and all of its components. The Internet for example was created so we can access information all over the world and to benefit from it. Falsifying information has lowered the credibility of the internet because of how easy and fast it is to publish any kind of information. Blogs are one of the ways that people post their ideas and comments without having to verify any type of information. Creating new websites is another downfall to the internet.  The general public can be misinformed because of the internet. Society uses the internet as a source to find information because of the accessibility. The internet has expanded so large that people use certain sites that are not beneficial to the human intelligence. Based on Google.com websites like Facebook, YouTube, online-games sites, and porn websites are the most common visited sites on the web in the United States (Smith). This clearly states that we are wastin

g our precious time and the full potential of the internet with meaningless distractions like isks. People now use internet to shop clothes, groceries, almost about anything we need to live, pay bills money transfers and check your bank account. Resulting in a much more convenient way for most people to get some things done in half the time they would normally and sitting from a chair. What might seem as a great way to quickly take care of business is also and it happens often a great way to become a victim of fraud, identity theft, credit theft, or losing your money, etc. This accessibility is harming us more and more just making our society more vulnerable and inactive. Another great example of how we are misusing the purpose of technology is cars. Cars were made for us to be able to transport faster and easier from one place to another. Now one more of our greatest inventions the automobile is being ill-used, turning it now into a sport like Nascar. Although we all know we are running out of non-renewable resources (fuel) and how expensive it is, we still accept this behavior as form of entertainment.  It is truth that the automotive industry is working on new fuel technology for better and less pollutant cars, which is great. But first, they had to come up with the idea of how to include GPS, mp3 and audio plugs, DVDs and voice recognition Bluetooth in our cars instead of improving the safety and fuel efficiency. The official U.S Government website for Distracted Driving states that such distractions increment accident probabilities by almost 30% in every driver, in other words making driving more risky and dangerous for us than it already is.

 

Advancements in technology have also greatly affect certain sectors of the industry and have even forced certain businesses to shut down for good because there is no more demand for that type of work. Newspapers and Editorials companies have been one of the most and highly affected by the advancement in technology. Big and local newspapers have been forced to either lay off a percentage of their workers or even shut down altogether not just because news are free on the internet but also because Now there are almost no human run factories anymore they are all mainly run by machines. The same machines and computers we have invented to make our jobs easier and faster are causing unemployment, because those machines and computers are replacing workers and are taking our own jobs. Hopefully we do not end in a reality like is shown in movies The Terminator and The Matrix, where machines enslave and control humans. And let’s not get into guns and weapons of mass destruction, because as technology advances guns and weapons are becoming more powerful and accessible. They are becoming bigger, cheaper, overall deadlier, and which makes it the worst aspect of technology by far. But is that really how technology benefits us? We know how  technology helps and improves some areas of our society like our health, curing diseases but the reality is that we could do so much more with the technology we already have and apply its purpose and its benefits to better ourselves and our society overall.

In conclusion, it is already known that technology overtime has been a great factor for our advancement as humans. Technology also has brought within itself bad things that continuously are harming our society as a whole, such as war, death, pollution, and unemployment. Our society chooses to rely on our technology we have created rather than ourselves, which is undermining our own intelligence. We as people are just becoming socially and physically inactive. We are turning lazier and lazier each day. There was a time where none of these things were present or as present as in today. We can clearly see what technology brings up to the table and is not totally positive, therefore it is veracious to think of technology also as a negative advancement in society as well.

Works Cited

Official U.S Website for Distracted Driving. Distraction.Gov. Web. <http://www.distraction.gov/stats-and-facts/index.html>.

Smith, Catharine. The Huffington Post. Google.com, 24 Jun. 2011.  Web. 16 Oct 2011. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/24/most-visited-sites-2011_n_883756.html>.

Stout, Hilary. "Antisocial Networking?" New York Times April 30, 2010.  Web. 17 Oct. 2011. <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/02/fashion/02BEST.html?pagewanted=all>.

University of California. “Is Technology Producing A Decline In Critical Thinking And Analysis?” Science Daily, 29 Jan. 2009. Web. 16 Oct. 2011. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090128092341.html.

Image Credits

http://www.jpost.com/HttpHandlers/ShowImage.ashx?ID=172126

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http://zanzasearching.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/evil_technology_picture.jpg

http://www.cringely.com/2009/08/is-technology-evil/

http://www.masternewmedia.org/images/cell-phone-pollution_id4212791_size480.jpg

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