Is Technology Good or Bad for us? Critical Analysis

Technology is boundless innovation. It has brought amazing things to us. However, there are certain drawbacks to technology as well. We rely more and more on technological devices in our daily lives. It’s facilitating the satisfaction of fundamental necessities, with a plethora of desired items conveniently accessible from any internet-enabled gadget.

Technology has advanced rapidly and will continue to advance in the future. How technology is evolving is fascinating to see. Technology’s impact on our routines is one of the fascinating aspects of this transformation. Through the advancement of technology, the world has shrunk in many ways, and we can now communicate with a wide variety of people.

But with so much advancement, there are also negative consequences of technology. What does that mean? Is technology good or bad? Let’s talk about it.

Impacts of Technology on Daily Lives

Communication

It’s easy to forget that one of the primary motivations behind the development of technology was to improve human interaction and communication. We had to rely on snail mail and the occasional handwritten letter to get our messages across before the advent of the internet, mobile phones, and other electronic means of communication. It could take weeks, months, or even years for your letters to arrive at their destination if you live on opposite sides of the globe. It was all different before the internet. No matter where you are in the world, you can now easily communicate with the click of a button.

Medical Technology

Advanced machines, highly capable medicine, and scientific technologies have enabled us to cure deadly diseases like chemotherapy, which helps cure cancer. Medicines help make the immune system more robust and faster; all this is due to advancements in medical technology.

Improved Productivity and Efficiency

Admit that technology has made our lives way better and improved our productivity and efficiency to a good extent. Take a simple example of a data entry and record-keeping process. Earlier, the data entry operators would manually extract the data from physical records such as documents or digitally scanned copies. Now there are tools that you can use to scan the document, and it will capture and store data automatically.

Negative Aspects of Technology

Indeed, technology is great but everything about using technology is not so good. Some of the harmful effects of technology are:

Sleep Problems

According to a report from the National Sleep Foundation, 90 per cent of people use smartphones before going to bed, which causes a physiologically lousy effect on health. A study shows that exposure to blue light before going to sleep suppresses melatonin and interrupts the circadian clock, making it less alert in the morning.

Eye Strain

Using computers, smartphones, and tablets can cause digital eye strain issues related to blurred vision, headaches, dry eyes, and neck and shoulder pain. It can also result in improper viewing distance.

Emotional Problems

A recent study shows that more than 1,700 people between 19 and 32 pages, who use social media more frequently, were more isolated as compared to others. It also leads to depression problems.

People can experience bullying on the internet. Negative comments, trolling, and cyberbullying are the three main components that can cause cyberbullying. It has been said that millions of people have been affected by cyberbullying.

Over-stimulation

Technology is overstimulating individuals, which often results in a state of overstimulation. It also reduces the sense of personal interaction and decreases the chances of getting a personal touch. The individual spends more time than necessary on technology devices and loses time they could spend on other equally important activities.

Increased stress

To save the time that one gets in the company of technology and make use of it while travelling, it is becoming the norm for people to stay connected online. This results in a feeling of increased stress and anxiety. When the stress level is high, there is a possibility that the individual is not able to concentrate on what is going on around them.

Conclusion

I think, there is no clear borderline whether technology is good or bad. All the technological innovations have been made to achieve some specific purpose and it’s good until we reasonably use the technology for that specific purpose only. Too much dependence on technology or addictive behaviour can never be said to be good. It’s us, the users of technology, not the technology itself, that is the culprit.