Using Technology To Your Advantage
There will always be two sides to every emerging technology - the positive side and the negative side, so it is all dependent on the side that you choose to allow to influence you. In this era, we have seen massive advancements in many technologies and not just that, computational and technological complexities are now the order of the day. If you do not choose to be on the positive side of this trend, it may eventually become your bane. This reminds me of what a friend once said about technology:
Technology has given us the opportunity to either do good or to do bad, but our actions lie on the choices we make.
It is true that technology has come to assist humankind in areas that cannot even imagined, but at the same time, there are downsides to it. Take the case of robotics for example; with the advent of mechanisation and automation, the human work has been made so much easier, more efficient, faster, more convenient, and less tedious. However, on the other hand, it has decimated the jobs that are meant for humans and a lot of job seekers have now had their works replaced by machines. This goes to prove that advancement in technology also comes with its flip sides.
At this point in history, it seems like the technology of social media is at its crescendo which has never been witnessed before. It is not surprising that a lot of people spend so much time behind their screens - phones, computers, etc, and thereby losing sight of their immediate reality. It is weird that the same mobile devices and social media that have connected the people very far way together, is the same that have disconnected the people very close. More so, a lot of people have been so submerged in their devices that it is beginning to tell on their social life - and they begin to adopt what they see in social media as their standards.
I once experienced a very funny thing a few years back, during the days of Blackberry Ping era. Where I stayed before, a particular guy packed into the next flat. Surprisingly, for a long while, no one knew him and he did not know any of his neighbours. He would just be locked up in his flat behind his phone and that was it. It became his lifestyle. He only left his flat when he wanted to go out, and when he comes back, he will not leave the flat again. No relationship with neighbours of any sort, and he would not be involved in anything that concerns any of them, until a day came when he needed a favour from one of the neighbours. Well, you already know what happened; none of the neighbours was willing to render their assistance because he had alienated himself from them.
A point will come in your life when you will realise that the people close to you are also important and should not be overlooked for the people you chat with on social media. In the moment of emergency, the people around may be the people that your life will be dependent on. So do not allow the technology of social media to remove your attention from the touch of reality. This is just one of them. Now let us consider other aspects of technology.
Take warfare technologies for example; a lot of countries have faced devastating effects of warfare, especially the ones involving advanced weapons. Some nations also have nuclear arsenals, while some others have various deadly weapons including bio-weapon, chemical weapons, etc. Imagine if all these are put to use, how will the world look like? Even though some of these also serve as positive uses, like for protection, peacekeeping, etc, but in my opinion, there are always two sides to weapons technology - the "sword" and the "shield." That is; for offence and defence, for positive use and negative use.
With what is witnessed in the world, it will be safe to infer that technology, even though it is becoming very advanced, is still in its infancy stage, we should expect more in the coming days and years. We may not have a choice of what to expect in the field of technology, but we have a choice of how we want it to influence us - the application and uses, and also welcome the effects.
Thanks for reading
