Technology: Good or Bad?

What do I think of technology? Well, I find technology to be one of the worse things about society today. Yet at the same time, I believe technology is the greatest gift to mankind. It seems that this love-hate relationship is shared with many other people as well. And why shouldn’t it? If you look at the both the good and bad that technology has caused, it’s easy to see why.

Firstly, I think it’s important to look at how technology has impacted the health of people. New technological advances have greatly increased the lifespan of humans. From surgery to military-grade armor, technology has been improving and protecting the lives of humans. But at the opposite end of the spectrum, we can see how much technology has hurt the world’s population. It doesn’t take much thought to think of examples of this. On August 6, 1945 90,00 - 166,000 civilians were killed by the dropping of the first atomic bomb. Although this may have saved the lives of many more people in the long run, it showed the world the tremendous amount of destruction technology can cause.

Another aspect of life that technology has drastically shaped is social interaction. In just a short span of time, the way we communicate has changed drastically. This change has both positive and negative sides to it. A positive aspect of this social media change is that humans can now connect and communicate in many different ways and in much faster ways. Through Twitter, Facebook, text messaging, etc., communication has become much more easy and immersive experience. On the other hand, however, this surge in technological communication has actually, in some ways, hindered verbal communication skills. Instead of calling someone on the phone, it has become much more natural to simply text them or chat with them. This has its disadvantages, especially in the business world.

In conclusion, technology is a tool. Like any tool, it can be used in good ways and it can be used in bad ways. Regardless of how you look at it, technology is here to stay.