The topic I have chosen for my IGCSE GlobalPerspectives Component#1 is Digital World. The sphere that I am highlightingunder this topic is “have technologicaladvancements reached a limit by which they can be called harmful”. Thereason why I have selected this topic is because in recent years, criticsworldwide have raised arguments on the reliability of the role of technology inthe life of the average human. Theprogression of new technology has been taking place since the beginning ofhuman history.
From the invention of items like the knives and spears made outof rocks and sticks for killing animals for food, to contraptions like thefirst printing press and the computer.Theadvancement in technology has been remarkably fast in the 20th and 21stcentury. With electronic technology and machines being produced and improvedall the time, it was most probable that along with the positive attributes ofthese new advancements, people would also consider a critical analyticalapproach of the negative aspects of new technology.Everyday miscellaneous companies manufacture something more advanced in an attemptto win the consumer war against another company. This consumerism is compellingthe rate of advancement more rapidly each year. The creation of the iPhone byApple is an example of this.
All of a sudden people could call, text, browsethe internet, listen to music, watch videos and click photos all in one place.No other cell-phone company in market could compare to it. This was certainly apositive, seeing that people could use the phone to store data for work,education, entertainment.
But it was only a matter of realization before thenegative claims began as well; too expensive, quick battery power loss andcould a device like this stop face to face communication all together-to namejust a few claims.Technology will always have negative aspects because it depends on what thepurpose of the technology is and who is making use it; Albert Einstein oncesaid ‘Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathologicalcriminal’. 1 One of the greatest negative claimsobserved on past years was against the advancement of gaming technology. Avideo game called Grand Theft Auto was released in October 1997.
The game was basedon violence. It included stealing cars, killing and hurting random people, tomore offensive content like the prostitute characters. Computer games were castaspersions on after an incident in the USA with a teenage boy who shot at two policemenand a dispatcher, killing them in 2003. He had once before been brought to thepolice station on suspicion of driving a stolen car, which is something that repeatedlyoccurs in the game series. Themedia described the incident in such a way ‘Lawsuit: ‘Grand TheftAuto’ Led Teen to Kill’. 2 Predictably,the blame was levied on the technology and the companies who created the game. “Whathas happened in Alabama is that four companies participated in the training ofDevin .
.. to kill three men.”3 This kind of mediaattention can be seen to support the negative claims made by Jacques Ellul, aFrench sociologist. He viewed ‘technology as an irresistible, mysterious force’4 he continued in calling it ‘menacing’ 5 and ‘has an ability to change every aspect of life thatit encounters’ 6. Concerned authorities were inspecting how the game waschanging and disrupting the young boy’s life, they quoted him to have said ‘Lifeis a video game.
You’ve got to die sometime.’7 Thisdepicted how this technology has twisted the boy’s mental state and changed hisoutlook on life itself, that it is nothing but a game. The technology has takenover the boy and controlled him into committing such an act of violence. Ellulalso described technology as ‘some kind of living breathing monster, out of control’8