Technology
In the current world order, archetypical of modernization and immense industrialization, technology is a fundamental reality that has affected humanity in various perspectives. Human life is at the center of technological proliferation and in the same way technology affects the various segments of human life. For instance, technology variedly influences communication, lifestyle, and people of various age groups, and more significantly, its good and bad use has implications on human life and the entirety of society in terms of relationships, development, and vastness of human action, value-based dimensionalities, and so forth. With the advent of technology, human lifestyles have improved considerably (Higgs, Light & Strong, 2010). Various aspects of human life have felt the impact of technology and its techniques have transformed the way society interacts and operates. The level of human communication has developed considerably, owing to technology, with massive progress from the era of symbols to the current era of laptops and posh mobiles. Equally, the various age groups from teenagers to elderly have embraced technology in numerous ways. For example, while young people walk around with Apple’s iPods, the elderly are busy tweeting their friends from the comfort of bedrooms. According to Hanks (2010), the invention of cell phones, internet, and thousands of gadgets across the world has made human life easy and swiftly flowing. However, technology has also posed challenges in society, particularly concealing some of the good ways people used to interact in the society. For example, people used to meet face-to-face and talk, a fundamental way in which people enhanced their relationships. Today, even parents do not have the time to see their children face to face and see how they are fairing. Instead, they can text or chat in facebook, an engagement that seems near, but far and injurious to the way families develop their relational values. In implication then, technology affects human life both positively and negatively, the positivity greatly indispensable and the negativity far reaching.
Of course, technology affects human life in different ways; however, this section focuses on the impact of technology on communication and lifestyle. Technology impacts communication and human lifestyle in different ways.
Historically, human beings had different ways of communicating with one another, however, the modalities were crude and time consuming. In the current world order, technology has improved the ways of communication to an extent that people in thousands of miles away can talk and converse in a click of a button. The implication of technology on communication has been massive, however springing both negative and positive effects. The broad world where human beings live has been turned by technology into a slender global village, creating the ability for people to communicate with others in various parts of the world. An examination into the positive and negative effects of technology on communication will determine the extent to which the positive effects are greater than the negative effects and vice versa.
Effect on relations
In the past, people in distant places had to use very demanding means to communicate with others, by way of either letters or having to travel by see or road to pass information from one place to the other (Hanks, 2010). This means of communication took a lot of time and as such, if a parent had a child studying overseas, it will take a considerable number of days to send a letter to the child. Sometimes family members will stay apart because of distance without communication until a person had to go home or visit another in order to communicate face to face. Equally, it was difficult to date with people from other parts of the world. In the current world order, technology has enabled communication to an extent that a message or information can be sent to a person of a distant place, even by sharing pictures and sending money in a click of a second (Cullingford & Haq, 2009). People form long distant relationships that even result to marriage because of the contribution of technology. Mr. and Mrs. Smith are one example of a couple who met through the internet technology. Mr. Smith is a US citizen while her wife is an Australian. The two met in a chatting site, conversed, and became good friends. They decided to meet face-to-face and finally arranged for marriage. In another case, Miss Angela is staying in the US while her family lives in the UK. Alice communicates with her family everyday on phone and sometimes using various chatting sites. With the advent of technology, communication has become simpler that people feel they are close even though miles away. This ability to communicate is one fundamental aspect of building relationships and keeping people in touch.
Efficiency
In the era when people had to send letters or people had to travel home in order to pass information to family members, today technology has enabled vastness and efficiency. In case there is urgent information an employer wants to pass to employees, one can do so merely by texting instead of waiting to travel back home from a trip abroad (Cullingford & Haq, 2009). People communicate any time of the day, based on their convenience, and one does not have to wait until a letter reaches a family member in a week’s time. The process of decision-making is therefore faster and people do not have to wait until they met physically in order to share decisions (Hanks, 2010). Efficiency has also enhanced development in all sectors and facilitated progress across the world. Furthermore, the easiness to which people communicate has removed numerous issues that people suffered from because of poor communication. For example, if there is an urgent issue that needs to be communicated at work or at home, one can send just a text through mobile and things can work out as planned. People manage businesses from the comfort of their homes, by merely communicating using internet and mobiles. This is a significant boost of technology, that faced by a problem, one can seek for assistance in the click of a button. If there is a problem in any part of the world, the media technology is available to inform people, such that it is easy for any willing country to intervene where possible.
Integration
In a world where people come from different backgrounds with plurality of cultures, sharing and having insight about other people’s culture is fundamental in global integration (Cullingford & Haq, 2009). As human beings, people ought to live together in the world, help one another, and share ideas on various issues such as improving life. For instance, scientists from Europe can easily share ideas with scientists in Australia in a click of a second. The shared information can then be used in the correct manner to improve society. On the other hand, people can learn about other people’s culture via communication technological systems (Higgs et al., 2010). It is possible today to know the culture of a remote place in Australia, for instance the aboriginal community, and understand how to relate with a person of such an origin if you happened to meet in the workplace or in a social forum. The easiness in communication brought about by technology has simply enhanced integration of people in a society where people of various backgrounds need one another for proliferation. Because of technology, various services such as video conferencing enable an institution or teacher to provide educational services to students from various parts of the world. Lecturers are also able to provide quality education through the web and using expert faculty as well as video-conferencing. This technological advancement has enabled students who are not able to travel to good universities in various parts of the world to receive education from the best universities.
Impact on Nonverbal and Interpersonal Communication
The easiness to which people can communicate using various forms of technology even when on distant places have affected face-to-face communication. Parents wake up in the morning and send just a mere text to their children wishing them a good day as the children respond back immediately because they have communication gadgets (Cullingford & Haq, 2009). In implication, parents today have less time to be with their children, merely because they have talked in phone or they chatted in facebook. This has a tremendous implication on the significance of face-to-face forms of communication particularly in a family context (Higgs et al., 2010). People today especially the young are not able to pass ideas face-to-face, a stance that has affected interpersonal communication. This is because there is an increased tendency to communicate merely through websites, chatting sites, and texting instead of meeting together to converse in a facial level (Cullingford & Haq, 2009). Actually, today even the introverts are able to communicate using gadgets while concealing their identity, however, instead of learning or developing skills for interpersonal communication, they end up facing tremendous problems in an area of work or in a physical group. This has also led to reduced forms of social interactions such as get-togethers and meetings.
A Den of Addiction
A less observed effect of technology in terms of communication is addiction (Higgs et al., 2010). Certain communication technologies such as internet have impacted psychologically on the population to an extent that people spend most of their time in this kind of medium. Others have become addicted with cell phones to an extent that, a cell phone has become a gadget of adoration.
To start with, technology has brought immense comfort to people’s lifestyles. People buy technological gadgets to improve their comfort, because they are able to accomplish various tasks easily (Geipei, 2004). For instance, instead of students going to a physical library to search for books, they merely sit at home and access an online library where they can read from the comfort of their homes. Technology is part of human lifestyles today, and because of the convenience and efficiency modern technology gives, people’s lifestyles have changed positively. By spearheading development, people are able to even do business from various parts of the world without having to stand from the comfort chairs in their homes. People work from home through e-business, and when faced with employment issues in a given country, one can look for a job through an online medium and work for a corporate entity abroad without having to travel there physically. This has improved lifestyles because it has created an environment where people are able to earn a living. Having impacted the banking industry massively, people are able to access finances easily, thereby addressing their needs at their comfort. Learning in classrooms where students use projectors, videos, and 3D images is a fundamental way that technology has not only improved the comfort of students but also enhanced learning.
On the other hand, people today buy expensive gadgets in order to be part of a certain class. The obsession of technology and class has changed lifestyles that the rich are waiting for new technological gadgets to buy (Geipei, 2004). People who have expensive gadgets are perceived to be living in modern lifestyle while not being able to purchase one is a sign of poverty or lack of an innovative mind to make money and buy an expensive phone. Technological gadgets are part of people’s lifestyles, and one can be recognized easily with the kind of technological gadget one has or the kind of technology one uses. Actually, people are living in an era that can be termed as a technology-lifestyle era. People associate themselves with chatting sites, communication gadgets, and networking websites as a modern lifestyle, such that, being a member of facebook or twitter is a lifestyle (Kaplan, 2009). Using emails for communication is a lifestyle. Therefore, technology is inseparable of lifestyle today.
Having indicated early that technology has affected all age groups starting from young people to the elderly, it is essential to note that it has an influence on the elderly in terms of lifestyle, communication, and the time they spend. However, some elderly are reluctant to use some technological gadgets because of complexity of these gadgets.
It is imperative to note that most elderly people spent most of their time in technology. Since most of them have retired from work, staying without technological gadgets will be boring (Kaplan, 2009). The elderly are often glued to TV or chatting with their families in internet. Therefore, they spend most of their time using technology. Furthermore, since most of them may not be close to their children they have plenty of technological gadgets to help them in accomplishing certain tasks in daily life. For instance, they have machines that can aid them in exercising and even carrying out some household chores.
Technology affects also the lifestyles of the elderly people. It is odd today to find an elderly who does not have a phone for communication or internet, because, they also desire to live in the modern era. Because they see their children with various gadgets, it is normal to find that they also ask for the same gadgets so that they can use them (Kaplan, 2009). Even though, they might not have the knowledge to utilize technology fully, they have embraced it and as such, it has affected their lifestyle directly.
Since the elderly are physically weak, they might not have massive time to sit on internet or chat in sites for the entire day. Young people can spend up 24hours on technology. However, even though the elderly have embraced technology, their physical defects do not enable them to spend long hours with the gadgets. Therefore, young people spend long time with technology than the elderly people.
Conversely, even though technology has been used positively for human development, it has also had instances where it has been abused and used badly. Summarily the good uses of technology include improving life, influencing development, efficiency, convenience, saving time and costs, enhancing communication, ensuring comfortable lifestyles, and a fundamental way of creating employment. However, some people use technology to steal from others, advance bullying, blackmail, to conceal identity, and to pollute the environment. Actually, because of the corporate nature of technology, people even manufacture gadgets that produce chemicals, which are harmful to human life, but sell them because they want to make money. This has posed serious problems that have increased the rate of global warming, regardless of being aware of such consequences and the lack of disposal of wastes that come from the manufacturing of various technologies. Moreover, some people use the chatting sites in internet such as facebook to swindle others while some blackmail the identity of other users. Other people use e-business sites to swindle money from others posting as sellers while the intention is to steal. Hacking has been a serious problem caused by technology, one where the privacy of an individual is castigated. Albeit the good use of technology, a lot more is needed to be done in order to stop the bad use of technology.
References
Hanks, C. (2010). Technology and values: Essential readings. West Sussex: Blackwell
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