We cannot deny the value that technology has brought into our lives over the years. Just think about how your life has changed since the first computers and other tech were introduced to businesses and homes:
- You’re no longer balancing your checkbook by hand, and the bank isn’t either
- You don’t have to write checks and buy stamps to pay your bills
- You control your TV from the couch
- You open and lock your car remotely
- Your car tells you when you are low on gas or need something checked in the engine
- You have access to a huge number of cable TV stations and Internet service in your home
- You can connect with friends via your cell phone with both calls and messages
- You can get oral directions to wherever you are going
- You can control the temperature and many other things in your home remotely
- You can purchase almost everything you need or want online and have it delivered to your doorstep within a day or two
- You can even date online before meeting up with someone in real life.
- Wearable devices track your sugar levels and your blood pressure and send the results to your doctor.
- Virtual reality allows you to try on clothes, visit cities all over the world, travel through a rainforest, and plop yourself down
Need we go on?
In short, technology has brought efficiency, speed, pleasure, entertainment, and conveniences even our parents never dreamed of. It was the stuff on which science fiction stories and novels were based.
But is this story all positive? Not by a long shot. Along with the ever-evolving pace of technology have come some clear downsides that are intrusive, impactful on personal lives, and even a bit scary.
While we are enjoying all of the convenience and fun, even dating online, we must be mindful and even concerned about some of what technology has wrought. Read on.
Threats to Privacy, Security, and Information
There is simply too much data out there in cyberspace. And it is being captured and used by organizations that want to know about you personally.
Suppose you have a high credit card debt. All of a sudden you are receiving offers from companies who know exactly how much you owe and promise to help you “consolidate” it and lower your payments. How do they even know how much you owe?
Suppose you have opened an ad for a particular product and have decided not to purchase it. All of a sudden, your Facebook feed is filled with ads for similar products. It’s annoying but a bit unnerving to know that others are tracking your behavior when you are online.
Data is also being captured by “bad guys,” and because organizations have not been careful enough about data protection, breaches of confidential personal and financial info are now in their hands. The now infamous breach of Target’s data occurred because of the sloppiness of an outside contractor who had access.
We are at risk of intrusion by scammers and fake personas who want our personal and financial information. Identity theft is only going to become more prevalent as these “bad guys” become more sophisticated in their tactics.
Impact on Lifestyle and Social Behavior
Our real lives are at risk of being taken over by our virtual lives, and the results are alarming.
We have an increase in social anxiety – people have become much more comfortable communicating with others via chats and messages, as opposed to physically connecting. The long-term impacts of this phenomenon have yet to be seen, but they are disconcerting.
Relying on so much content, and entertainment in the form of gaming, binge-watching, and social media, can lead to addictions that are difficult to break. In some places, there are actually intervention programs to address this addiction.
Lifestyles are becoming much more sedentary. The impact on health is obvious. Obesity is on the rise as are accompanying diabetes and blood pressure issues.
Attention spans are on the decline. Lots of researchers now say we are down to eight seconds, about the attention span of a fish. Both Facebook and Snapchat have come to accept that watching a 2-3 second video on their platforms is a “valid” view time considering this shortened attention span. That’s a bit scary really.
Family members are not just distanced geographically. They are isolated from one another, even when physically in the same room, because there is so much dependency on their devices. It is common to see entire families out to eat in a restaurant and everyone on their devices until the meal arrives. The human-to-human connections are being lost.
Dependence on human contact only through digital means leads to social isolation and ultimate loneliness. And that can lead to other negative behaviors such as drug and alcohol abuse.
We are becoming a lazy and demanding society. We expect technology to deliver what we want when we want it, without our expending any effort other than making demands via our devices. If a website doesn’t load within a few seconds, we are moving on.
But that’s not all. Consider what advances in technology have done to our workplaces.
Technology and the Workplace
We now have the technology that streamlines the world of work, but this is not always a good thing. Consider just these few ways in which technology has impacted work life.
When robots can sort and pick through warehouses for products that have been ordered and need to be sent out, there is no longer a need for humans to perform those tasks. When technology can generate financial reports, do corporate taxes, and respond to customers, the need for actual humans decreases -so people are dismissed.
More and more workers complete their tasks outside of the physical environment of an office. Working from home has become an accepted standard, so long as productivity remains. Project management software allows teams to all work remotely, never actually meeting up face-to-face except for video conferencing. This dehumanizes the workforce.
When more and more workers have their homes as their workplace, tasks intrude on personal time with family members, and it is difficult to find a good work and family life balance. They are “on call” at all hours.
What Does the Future Hold?
It’s hard to say. We are fast becoming a society that relies more heavily on technology than anything else to make our lives easier. But in that quest, we may very well be headed toward a world that is devoid of true human connections. Can we say “1984?”
