In 2011, thestar.com, an online newspaper published an opinion article entitled 'Technology is dumbing down our society'. The article basically talks about the fact that society is getting more and more involved or some might call it obsessed with the involvement of technology.
Technology has its pros and cons. For example, some positive side effects that came about due to technology is making everything more accessible. Also, introducing more work opportunities. Next, it helps keep us organizing, gets tasks that used to take a day or two done in merely a quarter of that, and practically gives you the world at your fingertips. This is quite literal, in today's modern age, you do not have to move to get what you want. Want to shop? Online shopping is here, just browse click, pay and it's shipped to you. Too tired to buy the groceries? Just buy them from supermarket online websites and have them delivered right to your doorstep. Furthermore, it makes communication a lot easier. As an international students, it goes without saying that communicating with friends and relatives back home is hard but technology has helped shortened that gap. Now there is instant messaging, webcam chats like Skype and such, which makes it really easy to stay in touch with people overseas. Don't forget making money through online businesses.
However, technology has also brought much negative. Yes, without a doubt technology has been a blessing but it has also become one of the worst curses to society. Among the downfalls of technologies are causing people to lose their jobs, destroyed our social skills, made us dependent, and caused us to be somewhat primitive in a sense that some of us are no longer of carrying out basic life tasks like holding a conversation or going out to buy things.
This has also effected our education and employment system. Back in "the day" if you had a college degree you knew there was a pretty good chance you were above average and will likely do ok in life but now any tom,dick or harry could get a degree as long as they could afford it. Technology has devalued qualifications and made adapt to unrealistic expectations to keep up with the changing environments. Furthermore, education has become dependent on technology. I cannot recall the amount of times I heard someone tell me class is going to be delayed we are having technical difficulties. In relations, these days we have online portals where we submit assignments and etc. If the portal is down we have to postpone the due date because of technical difficulties also. It is obvious that if someone were to somehow remove technology from the world completely, we will be so lost as to how to carry out tasks.
I for one can relate to this because I myself am a victim of these downfalls to a certain degree. When I was younger and did not have a mobile phone I had built up the ability to solve certain equations in my head or remember something that I have read without saving it somewhere. Also, my attention span was much better, I admit now if I was talking to someone and my phone vibrated, my attention would immediately shift to my phone and I'd have this itch to see what was it.
Bottom line is we need to be balanced in our usage of technology or it will become the death of society, or at least our social skills. I will conclude this post with a quote.
No comments:
Post a Comment