Is the world becoming too tech-based? I Ahaana

Have you ever had a day where you haven't checked or turned on your phone? I haven’t, and I’m 11! Technology has a huge impact on the world and on our individual lives. It is constantly improving and changing, which sometimes is quite hard to keep up with; especially for those who aren’t used to it or want it.

Technology helps the world in a lot of different ways, from the way families and businesses communicate across the world, to teaching school children and university students lots of new things, to the way we travel and the way we live at home - it is there for us and it will always be. But, are we using this amazing resource too much? Don’t get me wrong - technology is great, I don’t know what my family and I would do without it. Me and my friends are practically inseparable from our phones! However, while technology certainly makes life easier and more convenient, many wonder whether or not our society is too dependent on technology.

Some people, for example my parents, happily use technology and find it amazing at times. However, other people, for example my grandparents, have a different opinion. They also use modern technology but they think people are starting to become servants to WhatsApp and YouTube; what they mean by this is that we are letting technology control our lives.

Perhaps this opinion is right - for example, I have noticed if we are faced with a problem such as an appliance not working, we have the instinct to immediately search Google or YouTube to find the solution. I think that this is a great example of how technology has influenced our behaviour and maybe it has made us less dependent on our common sense.

I previously mentioned how technology is always changing and improving; but what if this gets too advanced? Will we have enough trust in technology to let it control our lives? Would you trust a self-driving car to drive across the country while you slept or looked at your phone? I certainly wouldn't, except, I don’t mind a plane basically flying itself with human pilots for the take off and landing. I wouldn't want to see a house that was full of technology that would stop me from doing things that I can do with my hands or my voice, except, I do like being able to ask any question or play any song at any time. Maybe we have already let technology take over too much?

Or are we overthinking this a bit? Technology has improved the world in so many different ways and helps us without us really realising, for example by powering our homes and making our food and water safe; and when power goes off in a storm or sewers overflow, we really notice when technology fails. Technology really touches every basic thing we need, from staying safe in our homes, and in cars and operating theatres, to how we stay healthy, to how we communicate with our families, or in a crisis.

Technology also plays a huge part in education. Computers and interactive boards make teaching and learning things a lot easier for many different people who learn in different ways. For example, teachers can check work using online tools like Google Classroom which played a huge part in education during the pandemic, when technology was also helping invent new types of vaccines for new strains of COVID-19. Even though the advancement of technology may have some negative impacts on society, its advantages are essential to the world - and our recovery from the relentless pandemic.

In conclusion, I think we’ve been taking advantage of technology without fully realising the problems this creates. But now people my age need a phone, and we’re addicted to social media, and we need things like Safer Internet Day to protect us from the dangers of the web, technology is part of our lives now in a way it wasn’t for my grandparents. I don’t think we are going to be any less tech-based in the future, probably the opposite, but we can be more respectful of how technology changes us.

By Áhaana

Sources:

1. Wired 03.22

2. Wired 11.21

3. Wired 09.21

4. Interview with my grandparents

5. Reference.com article

6. University of the People blog posting