Technology’s effect on Society

Technology, the application of scientific knowledge for practical purpose, has been drastically improving since the first people in history began to settle down with agriculture. Even today, according to Moore’s Law, they say the processing power of modern computers doubles every 24 months. Technology now is more impressive than ever and new technological advances are invented every day to make society better off. However, this isn’t always the case. Although technology is suppose to make society better off, it has failed to do so because it is negatively impacting the intelligence and habits of the young generations because they are too dependent on technology such as the use of calculators and spell-checks at an early age.

In discussion of technology’s impact on society, one controversial issue is if people have become too dependent on technology or not. On one hand, Didi Cece, a journalist for The Star, wrote an article called “Technology is Dumbing Down our Society,” in which he describes how much times have changed since the 50’s and 60’s and that we practically have the world at our fingertips, referring to the vast amount of information we have access to. However, he describes that he had a college class cancelled for a lecture because the projector wouldn’t work and is just one example of human dependence on technology. He also goes further and describes that it isn’t just colleges and universities, but elementary schools are starting students off with the wrong foot with the use of calculators instead of their heads. He goes as far as describing his own fear of having difficulty solving simple math in his head and having a shorter attention span due to technology compared to before. Sadly, this case is too frequent with the current young generation, which is our future workforce. Most kids have access to some sort of video games which they would gladly play as much as they want instead of going outside to play and being active which is important in the development of the young body and mind. One of his examples that makes perfect sense is how much people freak out when there is a power outage or if their phone dies, and maybe a long power outage is what we need in order to remember how to do things ourselves and to get rid of our dependence on technology. However, this is easier said than done as technology controls our schedules, computers at our jobs, and even transports us from place to place.

On the other hand, Andrew McAfee, an associates director at MIT, wrote an article called “Why the Internet Is Not Making us Stupid” in which he argues specifically against numerous authors such as Andrew Keen and his book The Cult of the Amateur. His argument is with the current technology, people all over the world are able to express themselves, have huge access to all kinds of information, and connect with people interpersonally. He states that instead of technology making us stupid, it is the only thing keeping us smart. In response to his statement, how did people stay “smart” without the power of technology we have today. In the 1940s, the scientists involved in the Manhattan Project didn’t have google to ask “How to create an atomic bomb?” With common sense, it’s obvious to say that you have to be pretty smart to create the atomic bomb for the first time and these scientists “stayed smart” when the internet didn’t exist. Now I completely agree with his argument that we have access to all kinds of information today, however, do people really take advantage of that? Only recently have I started to see kids in elementary school and middle school with cell-phones, I didn’t have one until sophomore year in high-school because I had no practical use for it. According to “Statistic Brain,” 25% of all Facebook users are under the age of 10. Facebook started first with the college crowd to socialize and keep in touch with classmates. However, with the fall of Myspace, everybody moved to Facebook and with the advancement of technology, the percent of Facebook users under the age of 10 skyrocketed. Why does a kid need Facebook, a website where people can post basically anything such as music, pictures, and statuses that are not appropriate for kids that age. So yes, to agree with McAfee, people have access to information now more than ever in the past, but that is not necessarily always good as it exposes kids to materials that they should not be exposed to.

There’s an extremely interesting article that supports Cece’s argument. It’s written by Nicholas Carr for The Atlantic called “Is Google Making us Stupid?” The author describes a very common phenomenon in which book lovers have lost their passion and concentration when it comes to reading books. The cause of this phenomenon is the internet because it is such a powerful medium for information. Instead of reading long essays and articles for information, the internet can directly transfer us to the information that you want within minutes, even seconds. My brother, who is 10 years older than me, described this phenomenon to me a few years ago because he saw it happening with me. When his generation went to middle school, high school, and even college, Google and Wikipedia we not as popular so in order to get the information they needed, they had to read numerous books, articles, and essays to get the information they needed. Along the way, they would pick up other useful information while reading that would stick in their mind for future use. However, with our generation, Google is designed to give us precisely the information we desire extremely fast, making us lazy to read long passages like the earlier generations, thus tampering with our concentration and our mind. This is supported by the article as well as bloggers like Scott Karp, a literature major in college, and Brucie Friedman who have lost patience in reading long passages because they are so used to skimming through information they only need through the internet. So all in all, the way they read didn’t change, the way they think changed. It isn’t just the internet, but any information medium such as the typewriter used by a 19th century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. The typewriter had a negative effect on his reading, made him lazier, made his arguments go from “arguments to aphorisms.” Even as I read this article on paper in front of me, the light emitted from my computer called me. It drew my attention away and it did exactly what it is designed to do. The computer is now everything people “need” like clocks, calendars, phones, TVs, maps, and more. Carr describes that we can’t read an online article without blinking ads,notifications from instant messages, emails to draw away our attention, and that will cause the downfall of human intellect. Carr also describes Fredrick Taylor, the author of The Principles of Scientific Management, and his experiment to make a manufacturing plant more efficient and relates it to Google’s headquarters in California and that their religion is “Taylorism.” Like Taylor did, Google collects information about the articles looked up, the kind of information people are looking for, and how they’re looking to access it everyday. Google uses this information to create new algorithms to make it easier for people to access information, “What Taylor for the work of the hand, Google is doing for the work of the mind.” When a person first thinks about this, why would easy access to needed information be a bad thing, it would make everybody more educated. Wrong. “Education” is not only collecting information in random piles, it’s having the ability to apply it to situations that are needed and Google won’t teach you that. It’s like having a computer hard drive plugged into our brains, will that really make humans smarter or dumber, because it is the computer doing all the thinking, not the brain.

A scholarly article called “Time, Society, and the Course of New Technologies” talks about the less abstract and practical purposes of technologies. These uses include the rising popularity of Global Positioning Systems in Canada for their use of navigating through the terrains when the visibility is low and the roads are dangerous. This is the type of technology that pushes humankind forward, unlike the internet, because they don’t exactly affect the way people think, it just acts as a support to human navigation in time of need. The article also talks about some negative things such as the young men in Inhambane, Mozambique and how their recent acquisition of cellular phones has led to the downfall of socioeconomic inequalities while preserving an unpleasant public secret about the workings of Mozambique's postwar economy. These secret workings include communicating and exchanging services for sexual favors which puts everybody in harms way of diseases and financial conflicts.

Another scholarly article called “Neo-Luddites Protest Technology,” talks about a group of people that do not favor the increasing popularity of technology. The original Luddites were a group in early 1800s England that destroyed certain machines that craftsman created during the Industrial Revolution due to the fear that the machines will take away jobs from the average man. This group of “new” Luddites do not advise violent resistances to technology, they just advise to give up technology as much as possible. They say that the cause of depression is technology in many industrialised countries. The averages person in the US watches around 28 hours of television per week which isolates them from their community because when people watch TV, they do not interact with others. They also say that before the automobile was invented, people walked around more and had a higher chance of bumping into neighbors to create social relationships and build a stronger community. I have experienced this firsthand because I moved to the US when I was 10 from Serbia. Everytime I visit my small hometown, I notice a few things; most people walk instead of drive because the city center is so close and there isn’t lot of parking spots. However, the strength of the community is unbelievable. Walking with my cousins and friends, I realized that the majority of random encounters with others are already existing social relationships, in other words, everybody knows everybody because nobody uses the automobile as frequently as they use it in the US and nobody has their face taped to their cell phones. When people get isolated, they grow unhappy and become depressed or anxious. Of course though, the Neo-Luddites support technology in many ways. The life span in industrialized countries has doubled due to medical innovations and common sense says that’s a good thing. But, being Luddites, they have many more  reasons to hate technology than love it. The original groups cause was to protect the jobs that were being taken away by new technologies and the Neo-Luddites mindset hasn’t change. They despise the facts that technology is taking away jobs such as the computer reducing the number of secretaries. However, in an economics class, you learn that with the destruction of old jobs, new jobs arise to complement the old ones. Such as the usage of computer. Yes, typewriter manufacturers had to close down their companies, but now computer companies are open. This brings new jobs like computer repairmen to replace the old ones. So their argument is a little faulty there but I do recommend that people should try to give up as much technology as they don’t need because I have seen the effects of no technology firsthand and they are amazing.

Technological innovations push society forward and keep our lives in order. What would we do without the cars we drive to work and without the telephones and computers? If those were instantly removed from the world, we would be in chaos. So it is safe to say that technology plays a key role in our society today, but it is also safe to say that we are being too dependent on technology in situations where we don’t necessarily need it such as interpersonal communication. Do we need a reminder to socialize with people or to post statuses? Do we need to keep a calculator with us at all times to figure out if we have enough money in our pockets to buy a certain quantity of things? Sadly, if our dependence on technology continued, the answer would be yes. Starting in elementary schools, kids are taught to use calculators, who needs to know math when you can just own a calculator. What’s the point of going to school if everything we learn can be accessed on the internet. With this mindset, our dependence on technology would push our intelligence so far back that it would grind the progress of humankind to a halt. So it’s okay to turn off the TV, the computer, and the buzzing cell phones to pick up a book or to go outside, be active, meet new people, and enjoy life without the incarceration of technology. This way, the people will live happier, smarter, more social, and healthier lives than the lives they live in which technology dictates their every move. Give it a try, turn off the computer and put down the cellphone.