Technology is by far the most revolutionized element of modern life that has taken humanity by storm. Nearly all aspects of life, for example, shopping, learning, office work, entertainment, medical treatment, transport, and communication, depend on technology. Technology has become faster, smarter, and more versatile than it used to be. Despite the inherent benefits technology brings, it comes with its fair share of flaws worth understanding to minimize their effects.
What is technology?
Technology refers to equipment and processes developed by the scientific application of information. It is the means/techniques of using technical knowledge to produce goods and services using machinery.
Technological gadgets dominantly used by people
Technological inventions have made it affordable for most people to own mobile phones, computers, and vehicles for convenience in communication, research, shopping, banking, transportation and the likes.
Disadvantages of using technology
1. Security concern
Using technology, particularly the internet, has made it extremely difficult to keep the private information of organisations and or individuals safe. There is a potential risk of information being stolen or channeled to terrorists, criminals, business competitors, adversaries, and the likes.
2. Job insecurity
Automation technology is gradually eliminating the need for human labour because well-programmed computer systems can do more work precisely, faster, and continuously compared to human labour. Entrepreneurship is the way to go.
3. Health problems
Extensive exposure to light-emitting technologies such as computers and cell phones has a negative life effect on eyesight. Overexposure to high sound levels or high-frequency sound damages the hearing system. Using automation systems makes work lighter and short, which reduces physical activities. This has a sedentary effect which poses a risk of obesity. Air pollution causes respiratory diseases such as emphysema, lung cancer, and asthma to become rampant.
4. Environmental concerns
There is great concern about the levels of pollution being caused by the use of technology. Air pollution from burning fuels has a negative impact on the environment, particularly on the ozone layer, which depletes because of the emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Sound and water pollution are the other forms of pollution resulting from the use of technology.
5. Privacy Concerns
Technology has changed the way information is generated and circulated, citizen journalism has made everyone a journalist. Everyone can use his or her phone to take pictures and videos while you are in a compromised state and use that to diminish your reputation online. Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras are now everywhere, capturing information even in public areas. When such information goes into the wrong hands, there is a substantial risk of the right to privacy being violated. Also, the ability to edit photos and videos has made it easier for manipulation of information, which has drastic effects on privacy rights.
6. Social disconnect
The ability of people to do things online has made it unnecessary to have interpersonal interactions. With technology, you can communicate remotely, learn or work from home, attend meetings from home, transact business transactions, and order food in the comfort of your blankets, which simply means less physical interaction with people. Also, addiction to the use of certain technologies such as cellphones and computers has robbed many families of their bonding time.
7. Work overload
The ability to do work from home has left many people overwhelmed with little off-duty time. Such people attend calls from work, WhatsApp discussions, or even virtual meetings during off-shift hours. Texts from friends in the evenings or on the weekend simply means that people never fully escape work.
8. Divided attention
The temptation of regularly checking for new messages, news, and trending entertainment on social platforms has left many organizations robbed of their precious working moments. The internet of things causes divided attention. Employees and students spend a significantly increasing time on non-work-related internet sites. Most people suffer from this kind of distraction, which reduces productivity.
9. Plagiarism and copyright violation
Technology makes it easy to steal information and reproduce it as own work. Copyright is gradually becoming difficult to enforce and will soon be irrelevant.
10. Fake personas and anonymity
Technology has made it easy for people to assume a fake identity. They use such personas for cyberbullying, scamming, defrauding, trolling, and the likes.
11. Overreliance on technology
People have been robbed of their physical capacity to do work, to the extent that work has to stop if technology fails to function. For instance, if your phone battery is empty (over-discharged), you can not communicate using a public telephone system because of a lack of a backup contact list. Similarly, it is common to hear of basic public services such as banking systems, power grids, communications networks, and hospitals not working because of catastrophic failure or cyber-attack.
Technology sometimes robs people of their precious time without knowing. The digital natives suffer from technology addiction. They can not spend half an hour without giving in to mobile phones, television, music players, videos games, play stations and the likes.
Remote-controlled military systems such as spy satellites, military drones, missiles, and destructive nuclear weapons make the entire world vulnerable to large-scale destruction. Also, terrorists can easily manipulate and motivate people to join them using social media. No one can guarantee safety.
14. Shorter lifespan
The swift changes in technology make technological systems lose value, become outdated, out of fashion, and archaic so quickly. So there is a need to keep buying new things and investing in training to keep with the times. This is unnecessarily expensive.
15. Social influence
Overuse of social platforms has a tremendous impact on how people behave. Before technology, families had traditional advisors who would sit down with teenagers, male and female alike, teaching them the founding principles of their tradition and good morals. Technology, however, stood to bridge the gap it created. Teenagers are now influenced by the social platforms they spend most of their time on, leading to the adoption of both good and bad practices; most of which are bad.
How to use technology positively
Self-discipline is the ultimate way to use technology. For instance, there are tempting sites on the internet that simply require avoiding because they lead to moral destruction. Examples of such sites are adult sites showing pornography.