People Have Become Overly Dependent on Technology
Humans have been called the animals which make things, and at no time in history has this been so obvious as the present. Today, every human activity is dependent upon various tools, machines, and systems, from growing food to providing shelter to communication, healthcare, and entertainment. Some machines, like the tractor, speed up and make more efficient activities that humans have done for hundreds of thousands of years. Others such as the airplane or the Internet, make possible things that humans have never been able to do before.
This collection of devices, capabilities, and the knowledge that accompanies them is called technology. We can say that “living without technology is like living without air” in this technical world of today. Therefore, we are much dependent on technology. Broadly speaking, technology is how people modify the world to suit their own purposes. From the Greek word techne, meaning art or artifice or craft, technology literally means the act of making or crafting, but more generally it refers to the diverse collection of processes and knowledge that people use to extend human abilities and to satisfy human needs and wants.
Technology has been going on since humans first formed a blade from a piece of flint, harnessed fire, or dragged a sharp stick across the ground to create a furrow for planting seeds, but today it exists to a degree unprecedented in history. Planes, trains, and automobiles carry people and cargo from place to place at high speeds. Telephones, television, and computer networks help people communicate with others across the street or around the world. Medical technologies, from vaccines to Stem Cell therapy, allow people to live longer, healthier lives. 00 years ago people’s average age of death was from 40 to 45. But now it’s 75. Furthermore, technology is evolving even as we speak, with new technologies being created and existing technologies being improved and extended. The benefits of technology are usually obvious, if they were not, it would probably never be developed, but the disadvantages and dangers are often hidden. A perfect example is chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs. When CFCs were invented, no one realized that these chemicals used as refrigerants would eventually damage the ozone layer.
Today, the Internet is having profound effects on society, how people interact and communicate with one another, how they do their business, and how they get their entertainment and recreation, but no one knows exactly what to expect from it in future. Computers make our lives easier and give us new ways to learn about the things we’re interested in. They make it possible to do many things from the comfort of our own home — we can shop online, keep in touch with our friends online, even go to school online.
They make it easier to record and organize information and entertain us with a nearly endless variety of games. However, it’s still important to maintain a life outside of the cyber world; a life spent attached to a computer screen isn’t a real life. When a computer becomes the central point of a person’s life, they undergo a change in behavior; they become lazy and develop anti-social tendencies, and, in some severe cases, simply cannot function without a computer. Some people say that we are not really dependent on technology. We can live without the technology.
Our ancestors did it, so why can’t we? I would ask these questions: When was the last time you solve math problems without using calculator? When was the last time you went to library to find information instead of searching from internet? Also time has changed since our ancestors era. Has technology really taken over our lives this much? Where we can’t go 2 minutes without checking our phone to see if we have a text? Where we can’t go a day or two without checking our e-mail, and facebook? We can’t even walk across a campus without seeing a student on the phone, laptop or listening to their iPods.
All this makes it particularly important that people understand and are comfortable with the concepts and workings of modern technology. Today’s people, including me, have become socially inept and too dependent on technology. Now this isn’t meant to be a hate technology thread, because technology really can be awesome at times. From a personal standpoint, people benefit both at work and at home by being able to choose the best products for their purposes, to operate the products properly, and to troubleshoot them when something goes wrong.
And from a societal standpoint, an informed citizenry improved the chances that decisions about the use of technology will be made rationally and responsibly. But sometimes we take technology too seriously, and depend on it too much. If your computer breaks, don’t get pissed about it. If the Internet goes down, it’s not the end of the world. If your phone is broken, don’t kill yourself. And ask this question from yourself: How long can you “survive” without technology?
