Ever since technology was first invented, it has benefited and affected society in a variety of ways, becoming an aspect of our daily lives over the past century. However, the question remains: does technology have a positive or negative effect on how the world functions today?
Technology is a man-made resource that humans have relied on for nearly 2 million years, later developed over time into electronic technology with the help of many scientists. Electronic technology will be the focus of this article. People all over the world use electronic technology when they have questions, need instructions, want a direct location, seek entertainment, want to connect with others, or just to get work done. Even though most people would use technology for good, some abuse this privilege, causing both positive and negative impacts on society today.
The development of technology went from inventions like the Vacuum Tube by John Ambrose Fleming to the iPhone 16 by Apple with AI intelligence. With this came the development of software apps that could be used. Examples include Google, Amazon, Netflix, Teams, Instagram, and Maps. All these apps serve the purpose of helping people in their everyday lives. Technology’s development can also help with communication, as Crownpoint High School freshman Jaron Stevenson emphasizes: “Technology helps me because it gives us the things we do and the stuff we need and communicate with people on cellphones.” In the beginning of technology’s development, people mainly communicated through letters; now all they must do is send a text message on their cell phones.
However, with the constant evolution of technology and the positives it brings, there are also negatives. Technology can impact society’s physical and mental health, but as well as their jobs. The first would be how it affects people physically. The negative effects include people starting to develop bad posture, sleep problems, and even reducing the physical activity. Student Y’oslyn Hernandez emphasizes, “It has made me stay up longer, and go outside less.” This is an example of how it impacts physical health. On the other hand, the positives include it leading to the development of wearable health devices, fitness apps, and monitoring systems.
Technology can have negative psychological effects on people causing depression, anxiety, and other mental issues such as cyberbullying and negative influences. For instance, Y’oslyn Hernandez emphasized, “It caused an eating disorder.” This is from being on apps that are on technology devices, not only affecting her but others as well. To overcome these negative impacts on our mental health, I believe that society should start taking breaks from always using electronic devices. This could have an impact, considering that a high percentage of teenagers are using devices more than adults and children. The positive side is that the use of technology may not affect a person at all. An example would be Jaron Stevenson’s response, “Technology never affects my mental health.”
Society benefits from having technology in their workplace. For example, it helps Gas Metal Arc welders make their work more comfortable and accurate. Police officers use an ALPR to automatically scan and collect the registration numbers and letters on a license plate to charge someone with a fee. Satellites used by NASA collect data from outer space to further our discoveries. All these are different technologies that are used by workers in many fields to help their jobs get a little easier. For instance, here are two technology devices that help medical field worker Adaliya Archie with her job. She stated, “A medical pager notifies everyone that has one, know where an emergency is happening … robots that do surgeries are called Da Vinci Surgical System.” These are both the technological devices that were developed to make it easier.
On the other hand, one thing that can be debated would be technology taking over the work fields like accountants, financial managers, and psychologists. Technology taking over is good because it gives the regular employees more time and increases productivity. The downside is that people are becoming unemployed, impacting the economy, as these people are not making enough money to support their families. Some technology systems need human assistance to work, like robotic surgeries, which work as if the robot were the doctor’s hands. Here is Adaliya Archie’s opinion on the robots taking over the operating room: “The more robots can perform surgical tasks the fewer surgical team members we need. Job displacement is a high possibility. It reduces our hands-on experience and patient interactions.”
Overall technology is used every day by billions, but it’s up to us to decide how we choose to use it. We could use it in a positive way as it was initially intended, like discovering new things, making developments, and improving lives. Even if we use it in a negative way to spread bad influences, we could still change that and harness its potential for good. Technology was invented for us to advance as a society. As we continue to use technology, we should ask ourselves this: are we using technology to advance or are we still letting it limit our progress.
