164: Technology- Instrumental or Detrimental?
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Technology is a testament to how mankind has grown. Since the dawn of time we have been inventing things to make our lives easier; the wheel, the steam engine, telephones, computers, etc. We have technology that has made our lives so much better today than anytime in our entire history. However, is there a point when technology is a detriment to our lives and our growth?
For the most part, we do have easy access to information. We can look up information on anything we want right in the palm of our hands. Our cell phones are mobile computers that give us what we need; Navigation, reference material, news, recipes, and entertainment. There is a real problem with this easy access though. Everyone knows that it is easily accessible and fewer people know how to actually research information for themselves. If you ask a student in high school today to do a simple math problem without the use of their phone or a calculator, they would probably get a look that of a deer looking head on at a semi truck’s headlights. Ask a driver to go anywhere unfamiliar and take away their access to GPS units and they would be lost.
The problem with an abundance of technology is that we end up relying on it so much that we are invalid when it is taken away.
Family-time has also struggled. The TV or radio was something that the family used to gather around in the evenings. They would watch shows together, and in my case, would talk about our days during commercials. I always wanted a tv of my own in my bedroom and my parents always balked at the idea until I got into High School. Once I got my own TV I was able to watch shows in my room whenever I wanted as long as I had a TV cable or a VCR (Yeah…I’m old). Now everyone can stream on multiple devices anything they want to see. People go into other rooms or put on headphones and watch what they want. The social factor is now taken out of the picture.
From manual labor jobs, to Information Technology jobs our jobs have been made easier with technology. A draw back to this is the fact that as technology improves, our productivity increases and the fewer workers a business may need. We lose some jobs to technology. McDonalds is a prime example of this with their digital ordering system. People can now walk up to a digital display to build their order, or they can use an app on their phone. Now McDonalds needs fewer cashiers.
It is important to understand that technology is important to the improvement of our lives, but if we rely too heavily on it, we will end up hurting for it in the future.
