Technology And Technology : The Negative Effects Of Technology

Through the years technology has been evolving increasingly, from flip phones to smartphones to watches used as phones, type writers to laptops to touch screen laptops and radios to basic televisions to big screens to flat screens and on to smart screens. Growing up, I would often spend time watching many hours of television. As a teenager, I also would begin spending more time on phone; talking, texting and video chatting. In today the world, the internet is highly influential, and is filled with a plethora of information about many things. For a long time, phones and the internet have become very problematic because of the lack of communication. Because technology may have a negative effect, it can lead to an overload from the media, to phones hindering writing skills and online communication can affect face to face communication.

Technology has always been a controversial subject between conservative people and innovators. Some people believe that it is a great tool to connect cultures and improve education and innovation in our society today, but others view it as a menace in our lives. “Growing Up Tethered” by Sherry Turkle and “George Orwell...Meet Mark Zuckerberg” by Lori Andrews both view technology as a dangerous tool. They believe in the many drawbacks of technology and the harm it can do to our lives with no explanation of the positive effects it has had on our society. “Our Future Selves” by Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen plays the role of a positive look at technology and its role in our lives today. It gives examples of how advancing technology helps us and improves so many peoples’s lives. We can use Schmidt and Cohen’s essay as a lens to view the other two texts and gain a different understanding of what they are writing about.

The effects of technology usage have long been a topic of debate, with the negative consequences often being brought up. Authors such as Robert Samuels, Alison Gopnik, Nicholas Carr, Gary Small and Vorgan Gigi have all addressed this topic in their own articles. In Samuels’ “Breaking Down Borders: How Technology Transforms the Private and Public Realms,” he discusses the creation of private bubbles in public spaces due to technology, and the consequent alienation of others. “Diagnosing the Digital Revolution” by Gopnik argues that the habits that tech users have today have always existed, while Carr’s “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” states that technology is actively changing the way humans think. “Meet Your iBrain” by Gigi and Small covers how technology affects brains and alters them. This paper will use the articles and an interview with a peer to analyze the perceived negative effects of using technology, particularly worse memory, shorter attention span, exacerbation of bad habits, and shifting emotions.

Young people spend 27 or more hours a week on the Internet (Anderson). As society moves on, technology will keep diffusing and changing drastically; opening more possibilities for newer and undiscovered innovations to take over. Technology can be found anywhere from phones to cars that people drive every day. As technology advances, scientists and doctors have started an altercation between those who believe new tech will teach communities and strengthen our knowledge and others who believe that inventing untested gadgets will only corrupt the nation and affect students at work. Although people view technology as an important tool of the future, technology can be more harmful to society as students become distracted, leading to health concerns, and influencing people to cyberbully.

Technology is as much of a distraction as it is an asset. It took me 30 minutes to begin this essay because my phone is right next to me, and I got a text. A single message turned into a full conversation along with an update on multiple social media apps. I was annoyed with my phone because it distracted me from my essay, but how could I stay mad at something so important to me? Without my phone I doubt I could be a functioning adult. I couldn’t have bought my Starbucks this morning, I used the mobile app, and I couldn’t have boarded my plane, my boarding pass was sent to my email, and I couldn’t have called an Uber to get back to school.

As I said in my previous essay, not many people realize it, but the human race desperately depends on technology for existence. Although depending on things such as computers, cellular devices, and search engines comes with very helpful and developmental research, it has also come with many negative effects. Technology has literally affected all aspects of life for every living person. To the point where it has made people lazy, taken their jobs, and has even made people addicted to social networking. Some examples of problems are constant use of social media, texting and driving incidents, cyberbullying, and even cheating on tests or exams. I believe that we’ve become evermore negatively dependent on technology because humans now feel the need to socialize and connect with one another more frequently than they did before the turn of the 21st century.

Throughout the past couple decades, cell phones and laptops have become a large part of daily life for most human beings. In fact, in today’s society it is rare to find someone who does not own some sort of cellular device. Although technology has many useful perks, it is beginning to deteriorate our society’s social skills and social life. Teenagers in today’s world are too digitally connected, and this brings along the negative effects of a decrease in real-life conversation, increased laziness, and more distractions in a number of different environments.

Technology has indeed improved greatly over the past decade. New innovations have helped society in great ways such as in medicine, communication, and transportation. However, technological improvements have also had many negative effects on people like creating separation anxiety in both kids and adults, reducing creativity in humans, reducing personal privacy, reducing employment, and increasing laziness as well as dependency on technology. Currently, scientists are reaching the point where they cannot keep up with the pace of their new innovations. In other words, they are not able to control or make secure their own invention because they focus more on creating something newer and more impressive. For my research paper, however, the focus will not be on the why and how technology is becoming a bigger problem but on the fact that society is not aware of the issues that technology brings, on the ways that people can be educated about this topic, and on why they should be educated about this topic.

“For a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve the quality of life, please press three,” said Alice Kahn. Walking down the hall at school, most students are on their phones because they just got out of class and have not had it for forty minutes. Technology has overtaken most of the lives of teenagers. It can be used for the good of the people or tear people down. Technology often makes people more alone due to the fact that it has overtaken some people’s lives, people spend more time on their phones than being productive, source of cyberbullying, people care more about how they look online rather than in person, use it as a replacement for interactions, and some schools want to revamp learning to online.

Siri, Alexa, video games, smart cars, online customer support, security surveillance, Spotify, Pandora, Netflix. All of these applications are similar in one way: they’re all artificial intelligence. And whose to say it might take over the world one day. Our generation today has essentially grown up around the use of technology. By a young age, most children are able to work through a phone or computer/tablet to get the solution they need. This type of technology is right at our fingertips each and every day, allowing people to find and answer in a short amount of time. It is efficient, but is that always a good thing? Machines these days are taking over and they are everywhere you look. Many are being used very wisely, but some are being used in a feeble minded way. Many argue that by using artificial intelligence it will hurt our lives tremendously. However, the use of this global machinery clearly shows that it will give us a more prosperous and healthy lifestyle.

Technology is the science or knowledge put into use to solve problems as well as invent useful tools. It is a necessity used in everyday lives because of its advancement, especially in today’s world, from curing illnesses to being able to talk to someone across the country with one single electronic device. Although technology may look as if it’s beneficial to our society, it will ruin the future of the human race. We live in a place with hate all around that can be the cause to an atrocious downfall. Countries use this power to overthrow each other with the use of weapons such as nuclear bombs that can easily wipe out a city with one single button. Similarly, the novel Level 7, by Mordecai Roshwald, gives a great realistic outlook of what would happen if the government were to use a nuclear bomb to wipe out their enemies. Other novels such as The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells indicate the negative viewpoint, not only with death but what the future of technology will hold for the human race. Technology will eventually become so powerful that humans will no longer be able to control it causing their immense downfall.

Technological advances in US industries are destroying jobs and distancing people from direct social interaction. However, technological advances have undoubtedly raised both the standard of living and the average life expectancy. Technological advancement in agriculture have resulted in increased food production, reducing the possibility of famine, even as the population continues to grow. Technology has allowed people to do both fantastic and terrible things, yet technology cannot be blamed as the cause of those good or bad results; technology is merely an instrument for the user, resulting in either good or bad outcomes.

Technology is a prominent object in today's society and it has been for a while now. It is undeniable that our culture and way of living has progressed thanks to the advancements in mechanics. At the same time, it could be argued that technology is harming anyone who has an electronic at their disposable. This argument is usually made by adults and the elderly, however, are their claims really far from the truth? If we were to look into the problem, beyond the surface, we would come to the realization the technology honestly hurting people as well as making them lazy.

Technology has been one of mankind’s greatest achievements yet. It has made life easier and more enjoyable, but it has also presented many negative impacts. If not carefully observed and analyzed, it will become difficult to control uprising problems. Technology has created its negative impacts through health, social relationships, and ways of living; therefore, use of technology should be limited and controlled.

Technology moves the world; it advances society. It lessens the workload of people and companies, and shapes the world into a more technologically dependent one. Is society becoming overly reliant upon the innovation that it has created? Humankind should be benefitted wholeheartedly through it, but what of those who are negatively affected by the tidal wave of technological advancement? Such innovation should not be swamped by government regulations, nor should the creativity bolstered through said innovation; if anything, more work and attention should be pressed towards the technological industry to a certain extent, to improve upon improvisations and work out the kinks and negative effects it may have.