Technology is Bad for Us - Essay Example

?Technology is Bad for Us Advancements in technology have made many changes in life. It has made the life of people much easier than before. The benefits of these technological advancements are not limited to a single field of life but these changes have brought a complete alteration in lives of people. This paper discusses the useful and harmful effects of some of these technological advancements on our lives. The most common blessing of continuously developing technology is computer; computers have made the life of individuals easier than before. They are used not only in businesses but also in other fields of life. Computers are used in education and made it easier for the students to carry out information about any topic easily. The use of computer and internet has made it easier for businesses and to gather data and information. People are now also free to transfer useful information to each other using this advancement of technology. Hospitals, railway stations, schools, colleges, airports, businesses are all kind of depended on computers these days. I. Drawbacks of Common technologies like Computers A. I believe that the drawbacks associated with computers include the time that students and young generation waste playing games, chatting, listening to music and net surfing. B. In addition, the continuously changing software has made it impossible for older employees to continue working with the new technological advancements at their work places. This factor has led to an increase in unemployment. However, there is a technique available to solve this issue which involves the participation of employees in training programs but it would lead to higher costs for the businesses. The security issues that are link to the data stored in computers are also counted as a drawback of computers (Fisher & Lezion 2009). II. Benefits of Common Technologies like Cell phones A. Cell phones are one of the fastest ways of communication today. They have brought a great change in the communication means. People are now able to communicate each other from any part of the world. The benefit of the cell phones is that it is faster than other communication mediums and is available for the users all the time regardless of the days. B. My point accompanied by various researches, however, cannot be ignored. People often misuse cell phones. Younger generation wastes hours talking with friends mostly on useless topics. This does not only waste their time but also cost them in monetary terms. People also use it to send messages which include some disgracing jokes about religions, races and cultures. This fact is creating distances among the people and is posing a threat to the overall peace among the people belonging to different backgrounds (Castells 2007). III. Technology, People and the Environment A. Automobiles are an effective mode of transport in the world today. These automobiles have really made journeys and transportation easy. Because of it the distances previously travelled in weeks are reduced to a single day or even hours. Not only this, automobiles also have a proper setup the individuals travelling in it. This setup consists of seats and air-conditioning systems. Because of these factors automobiles also provide a comfortable environment. Thus, they are really effective for transportation and travelling purposes. B. However, on the other hand, I argue that automobiles also have their bad effects. Firstly, most of the automobiles designed in the world consume fuel so that they can work. The fuel which is used by it is scarce and thus the usage of fuel is causing scarcity of important resources of this world. Moreover, automobiles also release different harmful gases in this world which can cause global warming to increase. For example it releases Carbon Dioxide. This gas constitutes an important part of the global warming. Not only this, the gases also have a toxic effect on the body of a human being. Thus automobiles have their own share of bad effects too (Alters 1999 p 837). IV. Technology Helps in Building and Maintaining Relationships A. There were times when people had very less friends, they used to socialize rarely, there were fewer options where a person could consult with other related people and as a result people had to go to professional consultants for advice, they had to spend a large sum of money to obtain the information they required. People used to have very less stuff for entertainment and people found or referred their life as boring due to less activities and limited social circle, that era was when there were no or less social software with very limited options. Social software consist of a large number of databases which help the users to interact with each other, share data in the form of pictures and media, learn new stuff and entertain themselves with games and many different tools. B. Nowadays in the modern world the rise of different communication setups can be witnessed. Many things can be included in these communication setups such as Msn Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, cellular technology, email options and other similar services. Social Communication websties such as Facebook and Myspace are real life examples of such a service. Facebook and Myspace which were originally developed to serve a single community have now been expanded all over the world. Both of these entitites started off with college students and they have now turned out to be world changing entitites. The popularity of these social networking websites has increased such that even the third world countries avail the services provided by these websites (Fisher & Lezion, 2009). V. Video Games: A Controversial Issue A. Video games are also another source through which it can be proved that technology is increasing our daily life problems. The popularity of video games has been increasing as shown by the investments made to meet the increasing demand. The innovations and technological advancements played a vital role in increasing the demand for video games. It has been observed that children of ages between 8 and 18 are found to have spent at least 40 hours per week in some form of media. This also includes the sharp rise in the exposure to video games by younger generation. The increasing popularity of video games has encouraged the exposure to video games to children aging 2 years with a minimum of 1 hour per day spent on games. Children falling in the age group of 8-13 years are observed to have played video games nearly 7.5 hours a week. It seems to be the best source of entertainment for youngsters. B. Anderson’s (2001) research further illuminates the fact that children are exposed to video games which are never supervised by their parents or elders. Adams (2010) further explains the problem in terms of age-directed games that 85% of children play game which are designed and launched for adults. C. Adams’s argument points towards the heavy exposure of violence and negative exposure about female body, relationships and negative ideals in those games. Anderson (2005) reveal the statistical data to explore the effects of media on individuals and the society. Anderson explains that by the age of 18, almost every American child is exposed to 40,000 killings by one or the other form of media. D. Violent games play a great role in altering the behaviors of the children. Early exposure to violence brings about a change in their viewpoints, habits and practices. Anderson’s study provides ample information on the changes that occur due to violent video games and sport games. There is a considerable research material available on this topic and the results are in favor of the changing behavioral patterns of emotions. VI. The Relationship between Media and Behavior A. Many research papers are created in order to understand the relationship between gaming, media and violent behaviors. Funk et al., (2004) provide a research conducted in order to find out the relationship between exposure to media violence (specifically video games) and then its effect on the real life. Exposure to violence was used as an independent variable whereas real life violence and the showing of lesser empathy were used as a dependent variable. The hypothesis of the study was that an increase in the exposure to violence in media does desensitize a child towards real life violence. B. There is another school of thought who rejects the idea that violent video games are in any way affecting the behaviors or crime trends in real life. The opposition group majorly consists of those associated with the creations and development of video games. Doug Lowenstein, the key player of the Interactive Digital Software Association, expressed his views against any relationship between increases violence and video games in the year 2000. He expressed his opposing views clearly on CNN by asserting his individual views in the following words. “I think the issue has been vastly overblown and overstated, often by politicians and others who don’t fully understand, frankly, this industry. There is absolutely no evidence, none, that playing a violent video game leads to aggressive behavior” (Anderson et al 2001). His blunt and clear opposition to the views of researchers led to a more in depth analysis of this debate. The researchers engaged themselves in analyzing the fact that violent video games encourage criminal behaviors and susceptibility of individuals to severe behavioral issues involving depression, social isolation, negative perceptions, low morale and improper attitude towards other people. VII. Media and the Society A. Nowadays, the importance of media in our lives cannot be ignored. Media is somehow responsible for the changes in society. Children are more likely to adopt the behaviors and fashions shown in the television programs. “It is clear that heavy exposure to media violence causes an increase in the likelihood of future aggressive and violent behavior” (Chaves, 2008 p. 148). It is a scientific concept that media is not the only cause of aggressive behaviors and violence however, it is proved that heavy exposure to media violence increases the chance of future aggressive and violent behaviors. B. In my view different technological advancements are proving to be lethal to the new generation. Computers and automobiles are making things easier for the new generation because of which they are not getting exposed to the real world. Violence and video games are related directly as shown by the research. In conclusion it can be said that technological advancements can help to a certain extent but they also pose several problems to the society which should be curbed in order to utilize these advancements fully. Bibliography Funk, J. B., Baldacci, H. B., Pasold, Tracie, & Baumgardner, J. "Violence Exposure in Real-Life, Video Games, Television, Movies, and the Internet: Is There Desensitization?" Journal of Adolescence. 27 (2004). (1), 23-39. Adams, Jill U. "Effects of violent video games." Los Angeles Times. (May 03,2010). Retrieved from: http://articles.latimes.com/2010/may/03/health/la-he-closer-20100503 Anderson, C A, and B J. Bushman. "Effects of Violent Video Games on Aggressive Behavior, Aggressive Cognition, Aggressive Affect, Physiological Arousal, and Prosocial Behavior: a Meta-Analytic Review of the Scientific Literature." Psychological Science : a Journal of the American Psychological Society. 12 (2001): 353-359. Print. Top of Form Anderson, J. "Dealing with crime." (2005). London: Franklin Watts. Escobar-Chaves, S. L., & Anderson, C. A. "Media and Risky Behaviors." Future of Children, 18, (June 06, 2008). 1, 147-180. Fisher, E., & Lezion, R. "Internet and Society: Social Theory in the Information Age – by Christian Fuchs." JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION. 59 (2009). (4), E13-E18. SO ALTERS, S. "Biology: understanding life." (1999). Boston, Jones and Barlette Publishers. Read More