How Technology Has Changed Our Lives

Technology is defined as machinery and equipment developed from the application of scientific knowledge. Its original use was meant solely for the service of humans, however overtime it has evolved into something much different. What was originally meant to be an assisting piece of machinery has changed almost every aspect of our culture. The way we think, communicate, lie, and even love has been impacted by the use of technology, and all of this is has made for interesting pieces of literature. In pieces such as Her and I, Robot, we see the evolution of robots and artificial intelligence into a more empathetic and humanlike creatures. This gradual change in our views of robots overtime speaks volumes to the evolution of technology. Technology in literature has become a reflection of human beings themselves, mirroring the very qualities of ourselves that make us human. By looking at the personality that technology takes on in literature, we can greater understand the aspects of ourselves that truly make us human.

The world we live in today is changing fast, due to the introduction and the advance of technology, it has improved modern life in many different ways. When you wake up what’s the first thing you do? You turn off the alarm off or hit snooze button on your phone. What’s next? The T.V., radio, or microwave, just think how many things throughout the day we use that involves using technology. We have based our lives around the use of technology. Yes, it’s good and has made our life’s easier, but it has also caused many problems that have been over viewed. Everything we need to do involves us using technology. Technology has taken over our life’s, as explained in “Technology: Do We Control It or Does It Control Us?”. After reading and analyzing it, I agree with it.

Then there is the cost factor, to be able to use this software; you must first switch all medical records to a digital system. This appears to be so costly that the government offers incentive money to meaningful users of the electronic patient e-file. Then there is the issue of, what if the system goes down at a critical time in patient care? If there is no hard copy to fall back on how will that affect the outcome? Lastly, there is the possibility of a data breach this could cost thousands in legal fees (Khazan, n.d.)

Technology throughout the years has consistently changed the way students, professionals, families, friends, etc. form and carry out relationships with one another. Technology originally started out as a tool to gain information or something as simple as communicating in a more efficient way. Over time technology has changed the way we go about our daily lives as well as who we are as an individual, losing our sense of self perception through the loss of daily personal interactions with individuals, as well as hiding from situations that no longer interest us (Ted Talk). Sherry Turkle, the well renown author for her book Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other, once believed back in 1996 that what we

The IT (Information Technology) rules the current generation that we are living in. The IT has brought drastic change in every single persons life and also to their way of living. It has brought changes in people way of working. Almost everything has been computerized in the world from small basic things to larger tasks everything has been ruled by the IT. From cooking to building large buildings everything can be done by a single computer with a very less human effort. IT has ruled the world. The technologies that are coming out in the market every single day has made our life easier and less complicated. But its not that coming into a IT business or building a software or a technology will have an automatic impact in the market

Over the last ten years, technology has transformed almost every aspect of our lives before we’ve had time to stop and question it. In every home on every desk; in every palm - a plasma screen a monitor: a smartphone- a black mirror of our 21st century existence. Our grip on reality is shifting- we worship at the altars of Google and Apple. Facebook algorithms know us more intimately than our parents. We have access to all the information in the world but no brain space left to absorb anything longer than 140- character tweets. Black mirror taps into the collective eases about our modern world.

Technology seems to be a topic with a lot of baggage attached to it. Since the evolution of technology a vast amount of social interaction has been diminished. Personal time with others has been cut down significantly as the new modern technology is now available for nearly anyone. Constantly being attached to a cell phone or computer screen is prohibiting social interaction between all kinds of relationships. Many say it is the fault of the individual to let the technology usage go as far as ruining communications that were once frequent among a kinship. Catching up on the latest celebrity gossip has become more important than talking to a spouse about their work day. Social media or online work can feel like an addiction to those who regularly use it. Now that the internet is accessible almost anywhere at anytime, the desire to be on board with the latest social media attraction has become nearly impossible to avoid. Being an avid technology user can put people at risk of becoming socially deprived of face-to-face communication since the user may prefer telecommunications rather than an in-person conversation. Due to a depletion of direct facial communication many believe that the use of technology is at fault; however these allegations are being fought against as others see technology as an advancement in communication.

Could you imagine life without your cell phone? I know I couldn’t. My daily routine is controlled by my cell phone; from the alarm clock on my phone that wakes me up to the last Instagram post I check before I close my eyes. I couldn’t fathom the thought of not having my phone (not a phone but, my phone!) with me every second of the day. My life would probably shatter in to pieces. Without a phone I don’t think my family, friends, or I would be able to function everyday properly.

Technology is all around us, the clothes we wear, the homes we live in, and the way we get our food and water, are all due to technology. From the time we come into this world till the time we leave, technology is part of who we are and what we do, yet we take for granted the inventions that make our lives a little more comfortable, happier, and a little less lonely. Through technology time and space seem to diminish; creating a connection between people that otherwise would not have existed. Once a piece of technology becomes part of everyday use, it melds into people’s lives seamlessly and future generations won’t know a time without it. The cell phone is one technology that has been around long enough to fuse into the lives of the young, but older generations can still remember life without this chunk of machinery.

Technology has become a part of our lives and culture, because of it convenience and easy to use factor that it able to make many things in our lives a little bit easier. Many services that derive from technologies that includes paying our bills and/or taxes, way to interact with people from many social sites like Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, etc.. and finally how we able to gain our day to day information through media. Technology can also help us in many ways, such as acquiring information from the internet or book for education purposes, or watching clips from the movie that you enjoy on a train. But, there are also many aspects of technology that can be used against innocent people with things such as copyright laws that can restrict a person access to the information. In many instances, people that control these type rights prevents access to use the information are influential corporate institute, who act as a gatekeeper on the public trying to access information or restricting movement from the public’s point of view due to the ownership’s right of the content of information. The problem of public’s access and the restriction of information is not something that happens in our lifetime. But in fact, the problem with copyright and the issue of access occurs throughout many time in history. Two of the prime example that was able to capture these issues are Siva Vaidhyanathan’s book “Copyrights And Copywrongs: The Rise of Intellectual Property and How It Threatens

Turkle senses a standstill, pleading that we still have time to take back our lives, to draw limitations on social media, to refine technology in a way that it truly benefits us and doesn’t serve selfishly motivated actions. A better way of seeing this is learning how to turn off the cyborg in us, and how to make technology a useful and effective attachment. Technology being so deeply ingrained, we have all allowed our phones to become an extension of who we are. Students in Turkle’s research sleep with their phones, and say they know when it is ringing, like phantom limb syndrome. Our smartphones are always with us, and our profiles are always on our minds. We interact with multiple messaging services via brief conversations of abbreviations and image sharing. We speak through images, abandoning words and written language. “Memes” inducing a reaction in under a minute, due to our ability to connect hundreds of cultural contexts back to a single image. No one has spoken more than several words, sometimes none, and we are in an uproar of ideas and emotions with a glance at a single image in a “meme”. We begin to think like our machines.

Technology is often considered the key to nations’ economic growth due to the many improvements brought to society. Taking a look back in history, technology has made good changes in human life, due to the automatization and less effort spent to produce in mass. In recent years, the dependence resulting from the usage of small and powerful devices by young people to correlate with others is causing side effects associated with health disorders. Researchers are working to find the best application of technology in human life, without compromising the development of society and leverage the usage of emerging devices and services. The majority of society is more dependent on the evolving technology than they think, causing several issues to human life such as psychological effects, psychological issues, and sociological complications. What can people do in order to prevent the symptoms of emerging disorders?

When you had to wait days and weeks for that letter to arrive and you needed get that information from that person, it was frustrating. Today communication has become easier with the use of technology. I was born in a generation of technology that has made it easier for me to talk to anyone that is anywhere. It used to be only phone calls and letters the ways to communicate with someone who wasn’t near you, but not today. The development of technology has allowed us to communicate with anyone around the world in just matters of seconds. Whenever I want to know if anyone from my family is doing alright or I need to get an information from my job I just need to pick up my phone and send a message or open my laptop and maybe video chat with that person.

In today’s society, technology has increasingly become more present in our lives. Grow-ing up, what I remember most was whenever I was a home, the one place anybody could be sure to find me was in my bedroom, sitting behind my Sony laptop doing random things. For many people, including myself, who grew up around computers and technology, it is really hard to imagine living in a world without them by our sides since we are so used to having them around. So where did computers and laptop even come from?

My typical morning begins with turning off the alarm on my cell phone and immediately checking my notifications— texts, emails, status updates, instant messages, etc. Then it’s time for me to actually get up and get ready for the day— wash up, eat, and leave for whatever is needed to be done for the day. I walk to the elevator, wait, and check Twitter. As I walk to school, I go onto Snapchat and snap a photo of my campus with the locations filter tag, sending it to everyone I know. Whatever time I have to spare, I tend to check any social media app for updates. Looking at my surroundings, it is not just me. I see the general public constantly checking their smartphones or tablets when they have the time to. What technology has done for my generation has us hooked onto the internet. Sure having all these advancements in technology is beneficial and adds a bit of fun to our lives, but it is preventing us from really connecting with the world.