Flashback to the early part of the 20th century, people wait eagerly for the letters from their loved ones to know exactly how they are faring. The letters bring with them an array of news, sometimes happy tidings, sometimes news of grief, but the main problem is that by the time the news arrived, it has most of the time become obsolete. News of someone’s death is received days later of them being cremated. The joyous news of a child’s birth is already a month old when you first hear it. But the biggest trouble happens when you do not even get the news because the letter has been lost midway.
Come the 21st century, one click and a single piece of news can reach millions in the blink of an eye. A mere six-inch screen literally brings the world at your fingertips; and even if miles apart, you can easily see your loved ones and talk to them. That’s the power growing technology unleashes. Humans have come a long way, from the people who hunted to survive to the people living in high rising buildings, all the progress has taken many years to occur but technology has played a crucial role in this development.
It was a Norwegian, Dr. Christian Louis Lange who put forward in his Noble Peace Prize acceptance speech in 1921 that “Technology is a useful servant but a dangerous master”, regarding the development of technology in the 20th century. The statement’s main intent was to describe how technology and its advancement has been a pillar supporting the human development but Lange also warned of the situation where technology could potentially become an uncontrollable entity. Nearly a century later, this prophecy has come to be true. Technology has grappled for the attention of the human society, holding them in a state of a trance. The fog covering the senses has been so thick that the relationship between humans and nature has fissured to the extent that people now sweat more regarding their technological health rather than checking the health of their environment.
What the technology has done to humans is that is has turned us impatient. What we now need is instant results. Our world now comprises of instant messaging, instant reply, instant appeasement, and instant fulfillment. But we skate over the fact that with such amount of power and promise there also comes various hazards. It’s just like a contract that always comes with some terms and conditions applied. Technology has completely altered the way we communicate. Where it can bring people across the globe together, it also unleashes the power of dividing communities and highlighting their differences. Technology doesn’t go by traditional rules and hence it makes it even more difficult to distinguish myth from reality.
Sometimes technology overshadows the truth and hides it behind its folds. Such is the difficult situation that it’s tough to maneuver your way in the world of fake news. Technology makes us extremely vulnerable to manipulation of information and the prevalence of the problem is so high that the Oxford Dictionaries declared “post-truth” the international word of 2016. These times of “post-truth” is where the emotional and personal belief of the people shape public opinion instead of facts and logic, making it very hard to separate facts from fiction or for that matter, a rational conclusion from opinion. Soon after “post-truth” took the crown for the word of the year in 2016, the word “fake news” was named by Collins Dictionary as the 2017 word of the year. From the pattern that the word of the year follows, it just shows exactly how much technology influences our way of living. Technology has promoted an era of post-truth and fake news and it’s hard for the people to escape from their hold. Unfortunately, the law always lags behind the stride of technology. Throughout the world, there is a tug of war that is going on between the protection of personal privacy and the need to prevent the misuse of networking platforms.
In the lieu of the increasing risk of technology, a Centre for Humane Technology was launched in the US by former senior executives and leading technologists to suggest the counter-measures for technology that is hijacking our society and minds.
There is a very fine line between our needs and wants; needs are something that you must have in order to live, on the other hand, wants are something that you wish to have so as to add comforts in your life. What technology is doing to us is that although it satisfies our needs, it tends to multiply our wants. When we talk about living in a world dominated by technology, we easily open ourselves to a plethora of opportunities, connections, new experiences, and learning outlets but at the same time, we also expose ourselves to a whole new world of overuse, vile, predators and greed. New gadgets and luxuries have become part and parcel of our lives but it is quietly putting an end to the growth that takes place within us. Technology has had its birth from some human need or the other and has its own purpose for its existence but as someone rightly said, “We shape our tools and then our tools shape us”, this is predominantly what’s happening with the use of technology. Humans shaped technology as a tool to fulfill some of their needs and purposes but now this tool is shaping and chiseling human lives.
Our ancestors were hunters and gatherers who rested satisfied after securing their food until hunger made them forage again but nowadays research shows that we are more like the mice running on the wheel and the next text or email has become our reward. Mobiles, cameras and other gadgets no doubt have made our life smoother but technology has tied us up so much that we inadvertently find ourselves reaching for your phones to check notifications even when we decide not to. The situation has become so pronounced that if we look around we’ll find people with their heads dipped, scrolling through their phones or tablets. Professor of Psychology, Dr. Alejandro Lleras from the University of Illinois found that mobile device addiction is directly associated with anxiety and depression especially among the youth who have been brought up in this generation of booming technology.
Where the growing technology has given us nuclear power plants that generate power without releasing carbon dioxide, it has also given us nuclear bombs that can wipe human existence from the face of the earth. Technology has its two faces, and we know about the unintended consequences of our growth but we take it all in our march forward. The only thing that is to be kept in mind is that technology is a tool that we created, we cannot become slaves to our own inventions otherwise we’ll be leading ourselves towards our doom.
