Impact of Technology On Human Life [PDF]

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Dependent on Technology and Its Impact on Human Lives By Augustine Obum Onyebuchi PBS1421700



With abundance of technologies that are capable to overcome the hiccups of our time like airplanes, cars, the internet, one will assume that these sophisticated tools would be used to acquire a comprehension of other cultures, meet people all over the universe, maintain and strengthen cordial relationship, communicate effectively with others with ease, and help the populace become more social oriented. In some cases the reverse is the case, some technological advancement cause people to be distracted, overly distracted, and stressed and increasingly living in isolation. Our lives have become increasingly dependent and immersed in technology. Much of our communication, leisure and entertainment are provided by the internet and video games, and many of us have found our mobile phones to be part of our lives. Technology advancement has brought so many changes in our lives today that we often say that human is becoming lazy and dependent on technology. Many people are involved in one relationship or the other through technology, but in most cases, the quantity of these interactions leave people feeling empty qualitatively. Humans depend on technology and internet for teaching and learning, travelling, banking, buying and selling, agriculture and farming, fishing and even the commonest housing chores. The emergence of robotic machines has taking over most of the housing chores human normally do. Technology has reduced the amount of time spent performing one task or the other. With the introduction of computer and internet, all the works done manually like record keeping, data storage is done with computers and can be accessed globally by the concerned parties. There is no doubt that technology has played an important role in the recent time but the question we should ask is if technology is threatening human existence. Just recently Russia developed a robotic war tank of human destruction. Do we really want to destroy the world? Are we becoming less intelligent? Are we becoming less creative and lack sense of feelings? From the question point of view, the paper will look more on the negative impact of technology on human life and existence. Many article and books have been written on the impact



of technology on human existence. That is to say that the topic is a very serious topic that we should be worried about. Families are no longer families because of technology. The father will be busy with his phone likewise the wife and the children will be busy with games. There is no time for interaction between husband and wife, and parents and children. Social interactions among families are gradually fading out. The use of applications like WhatsApp, Viber, etc has replaced the normal conversation among families. Nowadays, parents can send children on errand though the use of application installed on their phones. The time we spent with our gadgets and phones is far more than the time we spend with our partners, children and relations. There is no doubt that with recent advent of technology that human race is becoming less intelligence because of too much dependent on technology. It is most likely that science can destroy mankind as argued by many. E.g.; Robots will be built to clone humans, robots take over the world, the fear that the first genetically cloned human brain will be implanted into robots to enable them have human feelings and emotions, and may be even create some kind of offspring. It is imperative to note that technology is only created by our minds, with our own imaginations. Without our imaginations there would be no technology. Technology has made people to be more reliable on new advancement as result human has become sluggish and apathetic. Human has no emotion and or show little emotion about learning or thinking outside the box again. They are dependent on technology. Technology has made majority of the people to be less creative. People do not think of what and what they can be able to do on their own in other to be productive. They always depend on technology innovations and updates. The idea that new technology will come up tomorrow has made majority of the people to be less concerned on how useful they can be to the society. The few individuals that are creative use the opportunity to rip the majority that refused to think of how to improve the society. The lack of sense of feelings is the major problem of technology advancement. The society today is dead socially. Like earlier mentioned, the use of apps and robotic machines in our day to day activities has killed any form of sense of feelings left in human. Technology is making us so bust that we can’t even find time to spend with those that is close to us. Imagine a



situation where people are in contact through chat and online messaging system though they are in the same classroom and possibly sitting side by side because they think it is faster and effective but they are forgetting that meeting and interacting personally can never replace online chatting. In the words of R. Buckminster Fuller, he said…. “Humanity is acquiring all the right technology for all wrong reasons”. In as much as our lives are controlled by technology, it is imperative to state that the advancement in technology has helped to improve human lives for the right reasons the technology is developed. Most of these applications and internet were developed for the sole purpose to enhance human lives but most of it has been abused. The invention of Telephone, Radio and Television, opened way for communication between people from distance. People used telephone for communication and were considered luxury to have such in your home. The television and the radio started bringing entertainment to our different homes. People watch the television and get information on what is happening around the world by watching different channels. Before the television, information was sourced through the radios and the newspapers. The innovation of communication tools like telephones, mobile phones, computers and the internet has immensely improved communication especially simplified the distance in communication within the society and the business communities. The world as large as it is looks like a small hamlet because of technological advancement. There are no barriers in communication, the use of e-mails, mobile phones, chatting applications/programs to communicate and even see each other from thousands of miles away via different online video communication applications/programs like Skype, Facetime, Yahoo Messenger, etc has made communication appears as if the parties communicating are sitting side by side. The social networking sites Like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, MySpace, Tagged, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc have been able to unite friends that parted ways during their primary school days. Our societies are characterized with mobility, family and friends are often geographically separated, it is convenient to keep in touch through technology. The use of social networking has been effectively used by organizations and individuals in different ways. All most all business organization has a Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, etc where they market their products and as well know the number of customers they have either by liking their page in case of Facebook and Instagram or favoritism in case of Twitter. Individual celebrities,



politicians and professional use those social applications to reach their overwhelmed audience in seconds, something they could not do over a year through writing of appreciation letter of phone calls. Today most of the celebrities have over 2 billion followers. The students and other social group have benefited from the social networking. The use of the applications to pass information, notes, group works and contributions is no longer a new thing. Most groups use the social networking to create private group and pass the information to only members of the group. Such groups use the social network to disperse meeting munities at the end of every gathering they have.



Businesses, organizations and institutions are beneficiary of the technology advancement in running of their day to day activities. With Wi-Fi and mobile phones people always keep upto-date with what is going around them at the place of work and homes. Files are stored in the cloud which is accessible everywhere. No more floppy disk or carrying around flash drives. This singular technology advancement has cut cost for many organizations. Previously organizations used officers to pass information to other companies but faxes, emails, websites, telephones and mobile phones have taken the place of the dispatcher thereby reducing cost incurred by transportation. The internet technology has changed the daily life activities of people. People can do business and trade through websites without having to drive out and cue on the line waiting to be served. This act has contributed positively to green environment because we do have fewer cars on the road. A lot of people have become successful by making good use of internet to run their businesses and trade through websites, blogs and social media. Different online transactions are going on these days. Virtually everything thing is done online, online ticketing, online banking, buying and selling of almost every products online, teaching, etc. Bank has introduced online banking that allows customers to pay bills, make transfer, and pay for goods purchased without going to the bank to perform the transactions. With bank’s online transactions, school fees, rents, taxes, payment of loans, etc are done through the system without the customer having to go to the bank to perform the transaction. This has reduced the amount of queue we have in the bank. With the introduction of Automated Machine System (ATMs), bank customers are able to perform number of transactions through the system.



Database technology is another technology breakthrough that has helped organizations and individuals to save huge information systematically that would have been difficult to handle with manual system. In education sector, universities and colleges use database to save the information of the students without going to cabinet file to retrieve info about any student they would want to attend to. Results are no longer done manually. The teachers have their profiles, CVS and data uploaded on the school website for prospective students looking or searching for supervisors. Everything is done online. Lecture notes are uploaded on the student portal, information are passed to the students through short messaging system blast or through students e-mail address. The learning process has systematically improved from blackboard and white chalk to the use of power point. Nations use database information to store the records of her citizens. The world is actually a small hamlet with the help of technology. Hospitals are not overlooked. They use database to store the name of patient to the extent that all the departments in the hospital will have access to the patient information. In conclusion, it is obvious from the foregoing that, technology growth and advancement has done more good than bad. The positive gains from technology improvement are numerous and could not be done without. Human cannot do without technology; however, it is important that we are careful with it before it destroys us.



References http://www.humankinetics.com/excerpts/excerpts/technology-can-have-positive-and-negative-impacton-social-interactions https://www.academia.edu/346486/Technological_Advancements_and_Its_Impact_on_Humanity http://tellyoutoday.blogspot.com/2012/01/the-effects-of-new-technology-in-human.html http://70.33.241.170/~neuro647/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/NT-SoA-The-impact-of-digitaltechnologies-on-human-wellbeing.pdf