Impacts of Technological Development
Introduction
The transition from analog and mechanical technology to digital electronics is called the digital revolution. However, it is important to understand that advancement and development in technology come with both negative and positive impacts on society. The digital technology growth rate is accelerating across the globe as they affect how people and businesses interact and work together. Digital entails the use of online technologies and platforms to improve services and businesses offered to individuals. In this age, advancement in technology has influenced healthcare, education, communication, and businesses across the globe. In this discussion, we will evaluate the new Dark Age that states that technology is interrupting our understanding of the world we live in, and this makes the world more dangerous. This study also focuses on the history of technology, and the future as well as the communication revolutions happening currently. In addition, we will also focus on how technology, activism, and justice manifests in the digital age. Therefore, this study focuses on the potential impacts of technology on human progress, cooperation, and emancipation. On the other hand, the Dark Age entails division, conflicts, and misery among the individuals in society. This paper focuses on both the positive and negative impacts of technology on society. At times advancement in technology affects our relationships with it and with other people in society. Technology has remained to be our best hope of solving social and sustainability problems. This paper also emphasizes the relationship between engineers, and how they developed solutions using technology. Technology affects the learning process, communication, and how people think. It is more of interaction and collaboration. The positive and negative impacts of the technological revolution will be discussed in this paper in detail.
Discussion
As far as technology is concerned, we suffer the challenges, as we tend to underestimate or overestimate the impacts and roles of technology in society. We assume that technology is the only answer to our problems and that it also provides remedies to unknown dangers. John G. McNutt introduces us to technology, activism, and social justice in the digital face that seeks to explain the ways technological revolution enhances social change. He also demonstrates how traditional advocacy procedures have been modified through technologies. There exists a relationship between technology and social change (McNutt, 2018). Technology has greatly affected and completely changed and reversed the way individuals interact, meet, work, travel, and transact business and worship. In addition, the rapid growth of technology has led to the exponential increase of information that needs to be stored, retrieved, and communicated.
Computer technology has influenced how and where people work from, that is, employees may work full-time or part-time and not necessarily from the office (telecommunication). Telecommunication has allowed employees to work from home and in different countries. This kind of employment has helped disabled individuals who are unable to move and also employees who stay away from the workplace. The internet being the world’s largest computer network has led to a revolution in electronic networking. Internet access is unlimited as individuals can communicate, chat, read articles, contact business online and from home, conduct research, take online college courses, and even earn certificates of degrees.
However, the internet has a dark side that affects society negatively. Young children and teens access the internet and download pornographic materials. This poisons their mind and leads to addiction that cannot be easily handled and taken care of. Young people engage in dirty sexual chats, pornographic photos and videos, sexual conversations, playing erotic games and this has greatly demoralized social values in society. In addition, it has led to the existence of misery, social isolation, destruction of family relationships, plagiarism in education, and reckless dissemination of inappropriate information. On the other hand, biotechnology has improved the health of people through advancements in the medical sector. In the medicine industry, technology has been employed in sex preselection, reproductive methods, parenthood surrogating, and genetic engineering practices. This has helped doctors to treat fertility by use of fertility drugs, artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization gamete intrafallopian transfer, and services of a surrogate mother. It has played an important role in improving human progress and cooperation despite the rise of political, ethical, and moral questions.
A book was recently written by James Bridle, “New Dark Age,” states that technology clouds our understanding of the world around us and this has made it even more dangerous. The purpose of the internet is to combine high-speed computation and global networking and this makes it a tool for data mining and massive surveillance. The internet has not been corrupted since it operates according to its principles and imperatives, and this is what causes the clouding of our understanding of the world. Bridle writes, “Computation is both a victim of and a contributor to climate change.” For instance, weather forecasting is done through technological predictive computation through the assumption that the past reflects on what happens in the future (Bridle, 2018). It employs data from the past to predict the future. In this case, computational forecasting may be termed inaccurate at times due to rapid variations in global climate changes. And this is the reason the author refers to it as the “New Dark Age,’ as it incorporates assumptions about the way things happened in the past, to predict the on hoe things should be. He further indicates that the main cause of problems is computational thinking. It assumes that accurate information about the past should be synthesized to be assessed to make informed decisions about the future. The Dark Age period clouds us from seeing the true understanding of the present and future as it makes decisions basing on the past occurrence of events. Therefore, we need to learn and understand that different things exist between our relationships with technology. We therefore should not wait for technology to synthesis the past information to predict the future. Overdependence on technology will lead to more conflicts and miseries in the environment we are living in.
As the world changes, engineering also adjusts to the current world situation. An interview was conducted on engineers about their research priorities and they identified that technology should address problems such as climate change, energy crises, health, urban and security threats such as terrorism and online cyberbullying (Van der Vleuten, Oldenziel, & Davids, 2017). Engineers have played an important role in ensuring sustainable energy, use of smart electronics, urban planning among others. The historical aspect looks at the interaction between engineering, social, and environmental challenges and explains how engineers developed remedies to the past problems and the consequences of the solutions provided. This helps in ensuring a well-established social environment and curbing sustainability problems. Engineering has led to human progress, cooperation, and emancipation in society.
Advancement in technology has led to a revolution in communication. Bill Kovarik, an author observed a transition in the mass media platform. He puts more emphasis on mass media and communication history (Kovarik, 2015). He elaborates on the impacts of the visual revolution, photography, advertising, public relations, the first electronic revolutions (telegraph and telephone), and the new radio world. He establishes a relationship between the past and the present technology. Besides, the author explains the relevance of television, the digital revolution, computers, and the global culture to human progress. Technology hassled to division among individuals in the society as some are financially able to access and use the technology over others. Technology has impacted social change through improved education, as students get to educate themselves on the free internet sites. It also helps in addressing human needs and coping up with environmental hazards and disasters. Technological advancements have assisted in the prevention of corruption through computation and analysis of data. The change will always occur since human beings desire to change. The regular changes in society have been influenced by the introduction of new technology.
On the other hand, it is also associated with negative effects that include; dehumanization, which leads to online hostility and bullying, social isolation (reduction of social interactions between people), lack of privacy, issues among others (Kovarik, 2015). Communication technology has created threats to children's safety, the privacy of information stored in the computer, cybercrime (hackers activities like email phishing theft and fake banking websites and spying tool). In general, to appreciate technological advancement, individuals should focus on the present issues concerning society. We should not always depend on past experiences to predict the present and the future. This may lead to a delayed response to the problem that needs to be solved urgently or even lead to the formulation of inaccurate procedures. This will help in ensuring human progress and cooperation in society.
References
Bridle, J. (2018). New dark age: Technology and the end of the future. Verso Books.
Kovarik, B. (2015). Revolutions in communication: Media history from Gutenberg to the digital age. Bloomsbury Publishing USA.
McNutt, J. G. (Ed.). (2018). Technology, activism, and social justice in a digital age. Oxford University Press.
Van der Vleuten, E., Oldenziel, R., & Davids, M. (2017). Engineering the Future, Understanding the Past. In Engineering the Future, Understanding the Past. Amsterdam University Press.
