Impact of
Technology on Human Life
By: Daniela Cepeda
Technology advances have been numerous throughout
the past years. These have made humanity better, stronger, and smarter; or at
least that’s what most people believe.
Life is better. The list of technological
objects in ordinary life proofs that. "From the
invention of first fire to the first wheel, today we can imagine our lives
without a particular person but not without a particular technology system.” This
has impacted every aspect of our lives. Today, everything is technology-driven,
from how we cook (microwaves), to how we move (cars), to how we store
(refrigerator) and finally to how we entertain (movies and televisions)."
(http://www.helium.com/items/2314340-technologys-impact-on-society)
In Colombia, contrary to the United States, not every household has electric appliances, with the exception of television. This fact, prompted the 2012 report of Colombia’s statistics department (DANE) to conclude that “perhaps optimism to Colombians arrive via televisions, the most precious appliance for 91 of every 100 households surveyed, even over goods that could be more necessary as the refrigerator (33 of every 100 households in the national total). Moreover, it is more important to pay the subscription to television (51.5 percent) than to by a computer (33.9 percent). The computer is a still a good sumptuous in rural areas, where it is present only in 5.8% of households, compared to 41.7% of urban households".
Humanity is stronger. Weapons made some states
stronger, as was proven by the atomic bomb during the Second World War. But it
also made humans stronger compared to other species, since we could defend
ourselves with fire, knives and other weapons, as well as newer inventions used
today. Humans may control nature thanks to technologies. For example, water is
managed through damns, reservoirs, channels, bridges, etc. The cycle of night
and day does not impede humans from having light at night, thanks to
electricity, lamps and bulbs. Inventions made humans faster, through vehicles
like bicycles, cars, airplanes, and ships, as well as powerful, through
machines like the ones used in building construction.
Humans have become smarter. Books printed by
machines facilitated the spread of knowledge. Radio and television expanded the
access to information, even for those that cannot read. Complicated operations
became easier thanks to calculators and modern computers. It has even been
proven that “the scores in standardized test have improved in the United States
in spite of the decline of school quality because of easy access to technology
by kids at home “(Idea taken from “Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today's
Popular Culture is Actually Making Us Smarter”, written by Steve Johnson, 2006)
" ICTs can assist humanitarian aid
organizations. Logistic support, timely information, and immediate feedback
from the concerned region enhance the focus and effectiveness of aid. Timely
food distribution and ICT -enhanced coordination helped World Vision and its
partners, for example, to avoid a catastrophe in parts of Southern Africa in
the food crises of 2003."
(http://www.ifpri.org/sites/default/files/pubs/pubs/ib/ib27.pdf)
(http://www.ftpress.com/articles/article.aspx?p=30491).
A recent study show that 84% of students use You
Tube as an educational devise.( http://www.socialnomics.net/2011/06/22/how-to-get-better-grades-using-social-media/)
Technologies promote human communication. Devises like
smart phones, or tablets keep you connected to browsers all the time, as well as
Facebook, another way of human interaction. Studies show that technologies promote human
communication. Connectivity has increased thanks to communication technologies,
such as cable connections, as shown in Map 1. Studies show that 87% of smart
phone owners use them to check the internet rather than their computers (http://m.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/25-percent-use-smartphones-not-computers-majority-web-surfing-122259). Almost the double of young adults
ages 18-24 use Facebook several times in a day (73%) compared to older adults
ages 35-44 (38%).
Advances also involve medicine, and new solutions to
solve problems like hunger etc. Thus, telemedicine is a hole new branch of medical
practice. In fact, it is described by an encyclopedia as, “the use of
telecommunication and information technologies in order to provide clinical
health care at a distance. It helps eliminate distance barriers and can improve
access to medical services that would often not be consistently available in
distant rural communities. It is also used to save lives in critical care and
emergency situations". (Http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telemedicine). When famines occur, early alerts
and coordination has helped to solve the crises.
For younger generations, technology is important in
their basic education as well as life. Universities all around the world like MIT
are now using Internet browsers and other media sources to communicate with
students, teachers, and studies. Since students are constantly connected, they
have many learning options, like Codecademy or even YouTube.
Universities use the
Internet for administrative and academic activities. In fact, "the
Internet is most commonly (and successfully) enriching and reinforcing
"traditional" higher education in a variety of ways. For example,
through campus Web portals, students can register for courses, make
appointments to meet with advisors, check the syllabus for courses, reach
everyone on campus through electronic bulletin boards and email, and check
grades and exam schedules. Collaboration between faculty and students, which is
so critical to the instructional process, is being made easier with Web
discussion boards. Cooperation among faculty is being simplified as documents
are shared online."
We have lots of ways of learning new information,
which is constantly changing, as we are. Though, technology has a negative
impact as well. Students at many universities are also getting distracted with
sights like Facebook or Twitter while studying or testing. 65% of teenagers
describe themselves as multi-taskers, according to Wallis. (The multitasking
generation Time, (2006)). More than 40% of college classrooms, according to the
Campus Computing Project, have the compulsion to multitask.
This phenomenon will increase as today’s children
start entering into college. A 2005 survey of Americans age 8-18 by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that teenagers
spent 8.5 hours to media exposure due to media multitasking.
Studies have shown that humans cannot multi-task,
though many of these students claim they can. As an expert on cognition noted,
“concentration and in-depth thought will be lost as the ability to multiprocess
has its limits, even among young adults…., as errors go way up, and it takes
far longer –often double the time or more--- to get the jobs done than if they
were done sequentially” (David E. Meyer, Director of the Brain, Cognition and
Action Laboratory at the University of Michigan). A person can only give full
attention to one thing at a time (Study conducted by Elinor Ochs with 32
families).
Studies have also proven that the people who say
they can multi-task, are the ones most distracted. “Multi-tasking may actually
have adverse affects on the brain development of teenagers as parts of their
brains are still developing, and it may lead to a lack of analytical skills and
procrastination”, (www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article,2007, quoting Jordan Grafman, Chief of the National Institute of Neurological
Disorders.) The problem with multi-tasking, like investigations show, is that
the brain cannot give its full potential to one thing nor the other. If you are
taking an exam, while hearing music, while Tweeting to your friends, does not
let you do any of the things at your best intellectual level
(www.fritzhubbard.org/words/The_Multitasking_Generation.pdf).
In more extreme cases, technology is said to be a
disease throughout Asian countries, like Korea. In Korea, 30 million people are
thought to play regularly, and 10% of South Korean school children have shown
signs of video-game addiction. (www.Time.com/world/article/0,8599,1983234,00.html).
Several citizens have died playing non-stop video
games, and others in virtual centers. An organization, which focuses on game
addiction, denounced that a 3-month-old baby starved to death while his parents
were in an Internet café. A 22-year-old man murdered his mother who asked him
to stop playing. In 2005, a 28-year-old man went into cardiac arrest after
playing for 50 hours, and other 10 people died for causes related to game
addiction (www.video-game addiction.org). Technology addicts are already being treaded in special
centers, where they can find themselves through nature, instead of video games.
There are already more than 100 clinics to treat video game addiction.
According to researchers of the National Institute on Media and the Family,
showed that already 1 out of 10 video game players shows signs of addictive
behavior (www.video-game addiction.org).
Some people have been able to recover, though others
keep on playing for the rest of their lives. On the other hand, pre-schools in
Korea are now being based on technology. In Korea, the so-called R-learning
system consists of teachers, young children, robots and the interactive
infrastructure mixed with wireless devices to create an optimal educational
environment. From a young age, children are being thought how to use these new
study places. (Oh Sang-Rok. At school with robots.
Wwww.temi.republica.it/limes-heartland). Thus, technology may use it for good
and not for bad. Results show that these systems will continue to expand and
save lots of kids from getting this epidemic.
In conclusion, technology will not make up humanity,
but humanity will improve by making technology.
