Technology: The Good and The Bad

The advancement of technology is never ending. There are always tasks that need to be simplified, systems that could run more easily and so many things that call for constant improving of current technologies. However, advancements in technology come with some draw backs. Internet fraud, misinformation and so many other things.

In this post, I highlight the good and the bad of technology.

Improved Communication

Most of my family and friends live on a different continent from me. Technology still brings us together and brings us as close as we can possibly get despite the oceans between us. Facetime, Skype, WhatsApp and all the other Instant Messaging apps help to bridge the gap that exists. I’m able to talk to my sister who is on the opposite side of the planet and it feels like we are talking in person.

Video Call. Photo by Surface

Smoother and more efficient business

Advancements in technology have really helped business owners as well as consumers. If you’re buying stuff online, the need to actually talk to or interact with the seller has really reduced because of programs and codes that allow you to do everything yourself on websites. The business processes are definitely a lot easier.

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Saves Time

I’m an engineering student currently working on my thesis. As part of my research, I’ve had to use software like STAAD.Pro to analyse buildings. There are so many other such software that allow designers to know how a building will behave under certain loads or whether chosen sizes for your beams and columns are enough. We can do all this manually but that would take too much time. So another advantage of technology is that it saves us time. It only takes me a few minutes to get all the information I need on the behavior of a building. I can’t imagine what doing all that analysis was like before software like this came about.

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence in our everyday lives brought things like Siri, Google Assistant and Alexa to us which have taken over some of our daily tasks. We have full self-driving cars by Tesla and even targeted ads on Instagram. AI is used in our day-to-day lives just as much as it is used in big projects and definitely makes life easier in some way.

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Human beings might be useless in future

In order to survive, people need money. To make money, people need to work and have actual jobs. Technology is slowly taking away the need for human beings to do certain jobs. Machines are being designed to be able to do a lot of work. You don’t need a human being to analyse a building. There is software for that and for so many other things. This means that at some point, human beings may not be needed for some jobs. If you are in the IT field and programming and coding is your field, this may be your time to shine. As for everyone else, your job may be taken over by a robot. I took computer programming for one semester so maybe I should build up on that.

The ones to replace us. Photo by Alex Knight

Cyber-bullying

Bullying doesn’t only take place in schools or places of work but online too. It is so easy to create a faceless account and use fake names and then bully people. This is definitely one of the downsides of technology. It makes people bully easily because they have feel like hiding behind an account gives them courage and confidence to insult and bully others.

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It is expensive

In my post about things I’ve come to realise through online learning, Yuri left a comment about people failing to afford to study because they don’t have technology. Technology is not cheap at all. Also, software on devices is constantly being updated and then you end up in situations where a certain update can’t be made on your device because your operating system is not the most recent. Apple has/had a tendency of slowing phones down when a newer one has been released. In the end, you are forced to buy a new device, which is even more expensive than the one you had.

Not everyone can afford technology and that brings other issues of people having to drop out of school because they can’t afford a laptop or a smart phone.

Photo by Marvin Meyer

Inaccurate Information is easily spread

Because of technology and the ability to share images and messages instantly, a lot of misinformation is going on. A good example is Covid-19. At the beginning of the pandemic and even now, people were able to come up with their own theories of how someone can cure themselves of the virus, how the virus can and cannot be spread and now, theories about the vaccine that haven’t been proven. The ability to instantly spread information has led to people spreading lies without even fact-checking, despite the fact that the internet allows us to fact-check in seconds.

Instagram now has a system where information that is inaccurate is labelled as inaccurate and twitter also encourages reading an article before retweeting it. (All that is AI.)

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People don’t know enough

Not everyone is a tech guru. I don’t know much about the specifics of technology and I know there are people even worse than me. People give out personal information, agree to terms and conditions that they haven’t read, allow apps to make changes to their devices without even reading about it. A lot of times we just have the end in mind. We just know that if we update an app, we get a few extra features and don’t bother reading the fine print.
I suppose this is a human problem and not a tech problem but technology is advancing really fast and people just don’t know enough. Before you know it, we will be signing our lives away.

Some countries are left behind

The ground is definitely not leveled when it comes to tech. Does it have to do with countries not being able to afford it or the lack of interest by those in charge? Developing countries will remain known as developing countries for as long as technology stays stagnant in those countries. It’s unfortunate the divide it brings. Who is to blame?

There are so many more pros and cons of technology. Let me know what you think in the comments. Is technology doing more harm that good?

Thanks for reading!
Love,
Wonani Xx

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Hey guys! It is now Day 11 of the Afrobloggers WinterABC 2021 Challenge. Finally halfway through. This week is all about business and tech. Follow the blog to keep up with all the posts in this challenge.

Find all my posts for WinterABC2021 here!

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