Human Dependence on Technology - Essay Example

People Have Become Overly Dependent on Technology People Have Become Overly Dependent On Technology The society we are living in today has become technologically civilized as people dependent on technology to accomplish different goals. In fact, everywhere we go and in everything we do, technology surrounds us. While some people time on end in front of their personal computers working or social networking, others spend most of the time texting or scrolling their phones or even watching movies. In almost every home today one will find if not all of the following technological items: phone, computer, laptop, flat screen TV, car, radio, or a video game console. What this means is that technology has become part and parcel of everyday life. While some people claim that technology is far from occupying every facet of our lives, others emphatically state that without technology, life would be practically impossible. The question that begs an answer today going by the current situation, therefore, is: have people become overly dependent on technology? Some people see technology as a necessary tool to make life easy, and not something that humans have become overly dependent on. Humans have made and used tools since time immemorial and technology as a tool has not made man a slave. The fact that technology has made our lives simple makes us dependent on it. Most of duties in the house have been simplified by technology. For instance, food storage and cooking have been made simple and convenient by the availability of fridges, cookers and microwaves. Thus technology helps people to save production time and ease consumption ultimately making people dependent on it. While this is the case, man has not become overly dependent on technology since man would still survive, albeit with some difficult, if technology was taken away from the planet. Those who support the view that people have become overly dependent on technology, on the other hand note that people have come to embrace a culture that is almost totally dependent on technology and the world is becoming a mixture of human beings and machines. Following the technology domination, consumers are constantly demanding the availability of up-to-date technology as stated by Quinn (2002). The world has also been consumed by the persistent technology development. However, on recognizing the impact, I deliberate on the thought of whether technology is intrinsically consuming us as individuals, whether it is gradually controlling us and eventually completely dependent on it. Possibly, that outcome has already begun and it only us who are yet to recognize it. Therefore, I do ascertain that people have become overly dependent on technology. The impact of technology could be depicted in several ways some of which we may not realize. For instance most people think that its impact may be seen in big forms such as using a car to go anywhere instead of walking. However, very few realize the many features presented by technology. For instance the spell checker feature found in every laptop or computer in Microsoft word application is a product of technology according to Stair and Reynolds (2011). Thus the way students constantly use it in checking spellings and grammar mistakes shows how we are majorly dependent on technology. The Internet is also another form of technology which is extensively advancing. The Internet is a piece of technology considering that it has enabled mankind to perform duties that we could even think of doing many centuries ago. Today people can converse, chat and communicate with people from any part of the globe and even with those who we have never met. Business meetings can be conducted oversees and the comfort of the office through teleconferencing. Out of a population of seven billion people in the world, there is one billion internet users based on two languages, that is, English and Chinese. Therefore it is evident that almost every person capable of accessing internet has at list used it and this shows how we are becoming dependent on it. It is evident that technology has made the world a global community. In the health sector technology is easing work and machines are saving lives of millions of people every day. The tiresome and d risky job of monitoring and assisting patients at the intensive care unit has been taken over by technology. Technology is also capable of multitasking functions thus making the doctors work much convenient and easier. Today patients’ survival at point of death has become more technology dependent to the extent that a one minute breakdown of a machine or power can claim the lives of many people. Another way that people have become addicts of technology is the way it has merged computing and home entertainment. Today people can watch movies from their computers on the TV screen and this makes live much comfortable. Similarly, in their homes, people have embraced all sorts of technology especially when it comes to entertainment. For instance the home theaters, the TV, DVDs, iPhones and iPods all have become the source of entertainment and people find their presence at the home very comforting as stated by Boyer (2001). This has increased the rate at which we are becoming technology addicts. With people becoming highly technology dependent, several negative effects have been witnessed. For instance people are becoming lazy in their duties and their thinking has also been underutilized. This is because the computers are there to think for them and solve problems in a faster and effective way. There has been cultural decline following the dependency on technology. People have lost the appreciation of art, theater and music following the excess entertainment which is available through the electronic media. People are leaving their culture and embracing that of other communities as it is made available to them. For example Music in the western community is being listened allover the world unlike in music from other parts of the world. The availability of mechanized transport has become popular and people have become sluggish, obese and unhealthy due to easy access to this transport. People no longer have to travel long distances and this makes their body muscles inflexible leading to ill health. Since technology has also impacted on the food industry such as Genetically Modified Organisms, people need a lot of exercise to retain their health. People have become too dependent on technology despite the fact that it appears to impact on their lives negatively. However given the many benefits it has brought with it we seem to oversee the benefits and forget about the drawbacks and hence the more we use it the more we become part of it. Therefore, there is no denial that technology is overtaking human functions and we are becoming gradually becoming total addicts of technology. This is evident in the way people today are identified by the technological gargets they use almost daily. It may be stated with reasonable confidence that living devoid of technology nowadays is like living devoid of air because people have become overly dependent on technology. References Quinn, B. (2002). Techno Fashion. Oxford: Berg. Stair, R. M. & Reynolds, G. W. (2011). Fundamentals of Information Systems. Auckland: Cengage Learning. Boyer. S. E.(2001) Understanding English Pronunciation - Student Book: An Integrated Practice Course. Glenbrook: Boyer Educational Resources. Read More