Technology Advancements - Pros and Cons

Alolan_Apples

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Today’s entry is on technology, which is a process that’s moving on. In the past, life was a lot rougher. Everything used to be done by hand, it would take months to travel a hundred miles, living was less comfortable, there was less food, and insects were a major problem. This is what the 1600’s is like. Thankfully, we have moved past that, due to the advancements of technology. We got factories, cars, better homes, more food, and we don’t have to worry too much about bugs.

But technology can also be a weakness. That’s what this entry is about. As it has improved lives, there are side effects that can hurt us just as much. Here are the four common problems with the advancement of technology:

1. If we become completely dependent on it, any setback can have devastating effects.
2. Pollution is a byproduct of technology. It is harmful for the wildlife, and even humans.
3. People become lazier. As technology continues to advance, we get more reliant on it rather than ourselves.
4. When nature comes to play, we get new problems. Power outages, system errors, and maintenance issues shows how technology is a failure.

Technology is everywhere. It’s in food, in entertainment, in communication, in transportation, in construction, and in medicine. While it has brought us advantages, it also brings disadvantages.

Here are the examples that technology has benefits and drawbacks:

Job Creators and Job Killers:

Life was a lot harder back then, so there was more work to do. But as soon as technology comes to play, it starts to erase jobs. When the assembly line was introduced, it made automobiles cheaper and more common, so anybody could drive them. Before that, we used to have people raising horses and making saddles, but that job declined a lot. What about home video? Back when VHS used to dominate the market, there were a lot of video stores, including video rentals like Blockbuster. But after the introduction to portable video rentals, internet video rentals, and above all, digital downloads, there was less need to visit a video store, so people who worked in video rentals wouldn’t have jobs there anymore. And let’s not get started on industrial robots, which would be a bigger job killer.

But while technological advances kills a lot of of jobs, it creates even more jobs. When the iPhone came out, many old gadgets became obsolete, so manufacturers and shops that specialize in these gadgets were out of a job. But new jobs that require the iPhone (such as search engine managing, private driving services akin to taxis, and online grocery shopping managing) were created. Cars replaced horses as transportation, but we have more maintenance jobs. If robots replace humans, someone has to operate on the robots.

Internet:

It took two months for Christopher Columbus to arrive in the Americas. It would take two months back to Europe to deliver a message. Now, it will take a few seconds to talk to anyone from Europe if you’re living in America. If you don’t know what a word means, you would have to look for it in the dictionary, and if you don’t have one, you’ll have to go to the library. Now you can define words by looking it online. It’s also good if you’re seeking more information.

But the internet has its problems too. In fact, more problems. Here are the problems linked to the internet:

1. Security threats: These include viruses, trojans, worms, hackers, phishing, and other malware. This also includes porn. All of these can hurt your computer or steal your identity.
2. Offensive content and bad behavior: Putting hackers and other people who use the internet for illegal causes, the internet is also full of trolls and other scummy people. Racists would use defamatory language or post racist images, cyberbullies would harass people online, people would post death threats or suicide requests in message boards or private messages, and the worst of people would publish other people’s information online.
3. It’s not just a job killer as it replaces services that can do the same thing, but it also kills jobs or industries that aren’t even related to the internet (such as McDonald’s happymeals and playplaces).

And of course, if your wi-fi drops out, you can’t get the advantages of the internet, and if the internet is a need, this would be a problem.

Food:

One of the biggest disadvantages of food before technology came to play is the lack of food. It’s hard to grow food all year long, and you’ll need to feed everyone. But now we have more technology in food, we can grow more food and raise more animals. But this is not without problems.

The biggest problem is obesity. Now we have so much food that we can feed everybody, but technology has advanced cooking to where you can get food from public so easily. It has created more processed foods as well. As technology caused people to be lazier, it also applies to cooking as they would get it from a restaurant or pre-packaged meals. They aren’t providing any nutrients, yet they’re high in calories. Effects of obesity on the population also created eating disorders, which are just as bad as obesity.

Another problem is wasting. With less food made, more people would starve. But we produced so many foods that it also leaves people to wasting food. Fruits and vegetables, people get too picky about “perfect fruits”, so they are wasted more. We also have discussions on expiration dates, and many foods in stores are unlucky to stay on shelves before they expire.

And let’s not forget about environmental concerns. I’ll go ahead and give pollution from factories and power plants a break, but one of the environmental problems from technology is GMOs. They may make farming easier, but they have negative effects on the environment. If they are herbicide resistant and they blend their genetics with weeds, it could make a super weed that would be unstoppable. The other environmental concern is animal cruelty. Factory farming is an unethical way of raising animals. They are produced en masses, suffering effects of crowding, and treated inhumanely. And that’s not the worst of factory farming.

Computers:

I already mentioned the internet, but what about computers? They are the most revolutionary form of technology since the printing press. Since their debut, they have improved data storage, calculated processes better, and helped us in industries and business. But they have problems too. It made us lazier, caused us to be more vulnerable to setbacks, and use power, which means more pollution or more expenses from the cost-ineffective eco-friendly power sources.

But if we dig deeper into the computer realm, advancements in computer technology have done a lot of help (to computers). Earlier computers processed data more slowly, computer crashes used to be a lot more common, and complicated processes couldn’t be done. Remember old 32-bit graphics? Remember when Microsoft Excel had 65,536 rows and 512 columns? Remember when MS Paint only had very few paint options and strictly used RGB colors? Now we are passed that, and computers are a lot better now than before.

But what are the downsides to this? First, computers are so complicated that you don’t know how to work all or most features. Second, they tend to get very invasive over what you do on it. Third, you almost have no control of your computers anymore. And did I forget to mention, the crappy interface of computers? iOS 7 was bad from the beginning because it changed the classic icons to basic and flat. Windows 98 may be primitive, but the design looked better.

Onto video games, graphics, mechanics, and gameplay all have improved since we’re no longer in the days of strict data limitation. But one of the new problems is that video games have gotten much easier, and more cheesy. Freemium games aren’t real games. Games that play themselves aren’t real games. And let’s not forget about durability and reliability in consoles. That has gone downhill a lot.

Conclusion:

Technology is a strength, but it is also a weakness. While it has improved people’s lives, it also has many other side effects that are very negative.
 
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