Do All Inventions Equate To Progress - Essay Example

Do all inventions equate to progress? Introduction Since the inception of the mankind, every day has added something new to the life of humans. This something new has changed the way of living, lifestyles and raised the expectations for the future. Although inventions have added value to the world and it is going to be continued forever. One question always bothers me that do all inventions equate to progress? On a serious note, I would like to say that just like a coin which has two facets, inventions also have two facets. The one is that which brings some positive change in the life of mankind and another one which brings some adverse effects. All is accepted in this fast race of going ahead with technologies. In this essay we will discuss some major IT inventions and their advantages and disadvantages. Advantages and Disadvantages of major IT inventions To start with the essay, I would like to discuss one of the major inventions which have completely changed the life. The invention of Internet, it is one of the most impactful inventions in the history of the mankind. Internet has become an essential part of our life and it has become the best tool for being connected with the world. Internet has brought the whole globe in a single room. It has added value in every aspect, be it information, entertainment, communication, services, E-commerce etc. Internet is the treasure pot of information and anyone can get any kind of information under the sun. There are millions of books, journals, articles available on it and everybody can access that with one click. People can share information with each other easily and this has helped to grow more in every filed like medicine, IT, business, services, research and development etc. Internet has given birth to globalization which has changed the face of the world. In the field of communications, emails have given speed and cost effective advantages. Earth has become a global village. Entertainment is another filed where many people prefer to surf the Internet. In fact, media of internet has become very successful in trapping multifaceted entertainment factor. Downloading games, visiting chat rooms or just surfing the Web are some of the uses people have discovered. In service sector, applying for jobs, seeking for jobs, online banking, making travel plans etc. have given betterment to the life. E-commerce is the another area where there is no physical evidence of store but still companies are getting better revenues than physical stores with minimum costs. Internet has bridged the cultural gap and created a lot more job opportunities. There are a lot more advantages of the invention of internet, but at the same time it has ruined the lifestyle and human values in some aspects. There are countless negative values added to the life by Internet on young users. Here we are talking about juvenile delinquency - A research study shows that more than 68% of juvenile offenders are found to have copied criminal techniques from Internet. Internet has brought pornography and violence in the life of the children. Childers got addicted of pornography and they are wasting their precious time of the life. The Times/CNN polls show that 14% of teenagers have visited sites that teach them how to make bombs and 12 % on where to purchase guns from. Among video and computer games, bloody titles like quake, counter strike, DOTA, CRYSIS and doom rank consistently among the most popular. Violent video game prepares children to kill and even on how to enjoy the experience. The experience of watching violent program makes them more violent. (Raf 2009) Other than this internet have few more disadvantages like less security of personal data, data theft, virus threats which has caused for severe attacks on personal information like bank account passwords, login ids etc. Today, Information technology automated every business processes in a company. Nobody can imagine a company operating without computer support or electronic communications. Automation has increased the efficiency and capabilities to produce more with fewer resources. It is true that these devices have been able to accelerate the processes, but in doing so people no longer have to interact in order to fulfill their jobs, hence the breakdown in interpersonal communications. Consequently, long range planning has been sacrificed and reactionary management practices have taken their place. In reality, long range planning is still very much needed in order to remain competitive in a world economy, but this is not the mindset in today's corporate cultures anymore. We are becoming overtly dependent on our technology which results in three major areas of concern: 1. Company process get a halt when the power is disrupted and human being can not do anything and become helpless 2. It accentuates on short-term planning as contrasting to long term planning. 3. Basic interpersonal relations are negatively affected because there work domains are becoming different. There is one more revolution which has been caused by information technology resulted in drastic impact on health of human being. This is none other than technological invention of 3G - Third generation rays. These Radio signals which are for the next generation of mobile phone services can cause so many mental disorders and diseases like headaches, cancers, nausea, mental disorders etc. A survey being conducted by three Dutch ministries on the impact of tomorrow's data networks on health produces these results which is posing a great thereat to the health of a person.. This is one of the first types of study being conducted where they analyzed the impact of radiation from base stations used for the current mobile telephone network, and then it has been compared with third generation, or 3G radiation, networks for fast data transfer uploading downloading which will enable services such as video conferencing on a mobile device. But simultaneously there were a lot many negative impacts on the health of a human being caused by 3rd generation radiations. (3G Mobile Signals: Health Effects 2003) Various studies and researches have proven some major alarming health effects from various forms of severe cancer to stress. Dr. George Carlo, chief scientist – under his guidance, a largest study on effect of cell phone radiation has been conducted and in their research findings they proved that cell phone radiation predicts an epidemic in brain cancer that means a log user of cell phone can become a brain cancer patient at young edge. On the basis of facts and figures he has received from peer reviews, he predicts the number of cases of brain cancer between 400,000 and 500,000 by the year 2010. This figure is 10 times more than the number of cases existed at the time of research. The main reason is directly attributed to cell phones and wireless technology. (Quiring n.d.) There are a lot many research has been conducted and some of them. Some of them are presented below. These researches show the significant adverse effects on people’s health and life. Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research - They have studied on t he Effects of Global Communications System Radio-Frequency Fields On Well Being. This entitled got research findings about Cognitive Function and significant effects on human well being; they found that radio frequencies causes headaches, muscle pain, fatigues, and dizziness etc. (Quiring n.d.) Another study conducted by few Spanish people named Gerd, Enrique, Manuel, Ceferino and Claludio. They named this study as "The Microwave Syndrome" During this study they analyzed that people who live near to base stations are suffering from adverse heath effects. The normal disorders includes fatigue, tendency to vomiting, low mental energy, depression, symptoms of cancers, sleeping disorders, low hearing power, cardiovascular problems etc. A study report from Israel has been published in an international journal of cancer prevention, April 2004. In this report they have presented a four times increase in the tendency of being cancer victim, in the people who are living near to the cell phone towers and this is more inclined in the women. That means if we define this on gender basis then we can say that females suffer more adverse effects than males. Another study which is being conducted in November 2004 at Germany, In this study there were five medical doctors which established a collaboration to study the adverse effects. They have taken the case histories of patients from 1994 to 2004 and done speculations. They found that the patients who were living near to base stations newly developed cancer symptoms and it was significantly higher in these patients. In May, 2005 another study is being conducted in Australia. This study also resulted in same kinds of results which show the adverse effect on health of human being due to cell phone radiations. The above mentioned research proves that cell phone radiations cause health disorders among people. This is not only the case with one country, this is a global problem as we have included research finding from various countries. Now there is one major invention of technology which has some adverse social impacts. This invention brought a revolutionary change in the lifestyles of people. The invention of televisions has some adverse social impact attached with the advantages it has given to the world. The most important advantage which television brought that it has spread awareness among generations. Researches have found that television plays a crucial role in the injecting various skills set in a child. These skills set include social skills, behavioral skills, attitudinal skills and developing a value system in child. But over a period of time children shows a sharp inclination towards watching antisocial knowledge, violence, pornographic material criminal material etc. This generates a huge probability of adopting this same attitude and behavior in their personal life. This is being substantiated by the rate of growing number of crimes and anti-social activities committed by small children under the adverse influence of television. Parents can control this child behavior by keeping a check on children’s television watching habits; it can save their child from being involved into anything wrong. As discussed before Television not only has negative effect it does have a lot of positive effects. Television influences the whole life of a child. Researches have found that child who watches right kinds of programs have better intelligence and emotional quotient (EQ and IQ) than their counterparts. Watching TV in moderation can be educative, entertaining and healthy but becoming a television addict can bring about an adverse effect on the physical, emotional as well as psychological self of the child. (effect of television on children 2008) Conclusion To conclude this essay, I would like to say that although new technological innovation has always been a boon for human kind but it has brought drastic adverse impact on the life also. On one side internet has brought a new speed to the development and on another side it has caused laziness, obesity, mental disorder, job loss, etc to the people. We have seen a lot many research findings on adverse impact of cell phone radiation on human beings and as these kind of researches has been conducted all over the world. Everywhere it has shown the same adverse effects on health and mind of the generations. Television which have caused for a revolutionary change in the mind and education\awareness of the people, but at the same time it has caused increases in crimes, violence and juvenile delinquencies. All is accepted to a certain limit but it is very tough to draw a line between what is accepted and what is not accepted. Every technology will give hundreds of positive effects then it will add a few negative also. So it is yet to decide that where to draw a line between development and detriment. 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