Our second topic, debating the importance of technology in everyday life, was suggested by Tamzidul. Your colleague provided many highly interesting articles. I would suggest you all to read the following article :
http://programs.ssrc.org/itic/publications/knowledge_report/memos/sabri.pdf,
and then two more of your own choice from the following list:
http://www.d60.org.uk/everywhere.php,
http://www.salesmd.net/relying_too_much_on_technology.htm,
http://www.directron.com/07essay07.html,
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2005/too_much_technology.html,
You can pick any two of the above four articles, plus the first (.pdf) article.
After reading the articles, please create your 20-word list, then post your opinion related to the topic.
The due date for this blog is next Friday, January 30.
Thanks, and have fun with it,
Kinga
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14 comments:
Life today without computers is utterly impossible. I do believe that computers are a necessity in today’s life. However, I do not believe that we should be one hundred percent dependable on them. I have this theory, that computers are a privilege to have and not a right. What I mean by this is that computers should control our every day life, but help organize it. So, if any sort of malfunction ever occurs in the system these computers run by, our daily life activities and plans should not be postponed or canceled to that matter.
Another thing I believe in is, that computers are a cause to weight and obesity in this world. People no longer have to get up to perform any of their daily chores. They’re always a few clicks away from them. People no longer have to go to stores to buy groceries, clothes, shoes, or even movies. They rather sit down on their couches with their soft drinks in one hand, and a packet of chips in the other, and they just do whatever needs to be done for the rest of the day on the computer. Even the procedure of actually getting up to get your own food is impossible. The most work people seem to do now a days is get up to open the house, or apartment door to pay the delivery guys for the meal they’ve just ordered. And this makes me sad. Seeing that world is now unable to function on its own. They rather have a brainless object perform all that needs to be done for them. That’s why computers should be a privilege, and not a right.
From my point of view, mankind should keep developing technology in order to build a more advanced society and live a better life. For example, the invention of steam engines helps improve the production efficiency in factories. With the help of telephone, people can communicate with each other easier and faster even one is in the USA and the other one is in China, like my parents and me. In the twentieth century, the first computer was invented in the United States. Nowadays computers are used in almost each industry. We can save plenty of time, money and labor power by using computer technology. Imagine how comfortable that you are surfing online when you lie on the bed. In addition, healthier food and medicines with few side effects are produced due to advanced technology. I believe in the future more people won’t say that we rely too much on technology when they experience the convenience that technology brings us.
Now we live in the modern world so if we don’t follow the new technology that has been developed our knowledge will be left behind. I can say that technology make our time more efficient than before. Because of that we don’t have to halt the development in technology. From the article that I’ve just read above, I see that nowadays people like to buy their need through online and from my point of view, this new shopping method is a great innovation because we don’t have to waste the time just to find the thing that we need in the store. Although, technologies such computer, calculator, cell phone, etc is a great innovation in our modern days, I’m agree that with shouldn’t rely too much in technology because everything that too much or excess isn’t good and always has the side effect. For instance is in easy math calculation, nowadays people would rather to use calculator than their mathematics skills to calculate basic calculation. This condition is when I think we rely too much with technology because we don’t train our brain to do just simple things. So in my opinion, it’s better to balance ourselves while using technologies but keep the development in it because it’s make human life better.
Life today without technology is impossible. For example, lets think about the situation of buying a new house. When you think about what putting in it, you think about a bed, a table, furniture... and then a computer, a radio, the internet connection. The point I want to make is that there are some technology factors that are indispensable in our lives, because the current society demands its use.
However, I don’t think that computers should control our daily living, but rather help it. At the end, the one who thinks is a person, not a computer. These should be a tool, not a method. I once went to a restaurant at Peru where the service consisted in making your order with a touch screen. 4 months later, it closed because the method did not work, since people wanted real treatment and not a cold screen of a computer.
What we should try is to create a kind of living where technology and the human interaction are on balance. I mean, living on facebook the whole day of at the AIM messenger is not what life is. Life is about going out, meet new people and have new experiences, and that is not what a computer can give you.
As the world advances in civilization, technology has been developed. Technology gives every facility for us and it makes our life easier. Actually, it is impossible to live without technology nowadays. However, technology makes people stupid and lazy. For example, in Korean school, students are not allowed to use any calculators in math classes. So, I should do sums, subtractions, multiplications, and divisions in mental arithmetic. After I study math in the U.S., I get worse to calculate mentally. There is another example. Before I get a cell phone, I was good at memorizing telephone numbers of my friends. However, I do not need to memorize any phone numbers today because I can store the numbers in my cell phone. As a result, I cannot call my friends without my cell phone. I am not saying that technology is bad. I know I cannot even imagine that I live without technology. But, we should realize that ancient people could live well without technology.
We are living in the technology society right now. Many people can not live without using the technology productions such as computer. And it does not mean it is a bad thing. The technology productions like computer can make people life easier. They can help a lot of complicate problem, and they can do a lot of work for people. But right some people use it too much. Their life is filling with the technology, there is no other thing, and computer is like their friends. I think the technology is too much for our life right now. We need it to get information, but we should not rely on them. Like the article said, we have to do some “offline” activities. Go outside to do different things, hang out with friends or get in touch with the natural. Trying to find the balance between technology and the normal life, makes your life abundant.
My life is surrounded by new technologies such as cars, laptops, Internet etc. I can hardly imagine how can live without them. Someone think that we rely too much on technology. I don’t really agree with that. What is technology? It is the practical application of science to commerce or industry. It means that technologies are everywhere! Wheels, tools, fuel are all technology. How can we live without them? Nowadays, people always complain about the negative effect of new technology, thinking that it is the computer and internet isolating people. I feel sympathetic about them. They don’t know how to adapt to the new society but complain. In my humble opinion, we cannot stop the development of technology. So stop complaining and become realistic. We should think about the benefits brought by technologies and be thankful to them. Since we need technologies, we should take advantage of them and get rid of their negative effects. If one really hates technology, he should walk to work, live in cave, drink river water and eat raw meat. I will just let them be and use technology to have a better life.
Technology is everywhere, think about all those electronics in our life, cell phone, mp3 player, and computer. These days most of the people do not even remember friends’ phone number. We save all those data into the cell phone, or sometimes in computer. Many factories became computerized recently. Factories do not require much man powers as before. Let think about other side of technology based world. Many elder people have problems with the new technology. Also some people having hard time on their computer’s malfunction. As our technology advances we have to know some basics about that technology. Some people will not be able to follow up with the current technology and they will weed out. Shifting will cause some people to lose their job and it would be a real social issue. Even now some factories operate without any labor. They will run 24/7 but what about those people who used to work in there? We always tend to be comfortable and look for better technology, but it might be a good time to think about what our society would become.
Technology has changed dramatically over the last century. High technology made all humanity well-off and convenient. Thesedays, people can do anything they can think of which people back in a few centuries ago could not even imagin. Among the many technological achievements, I think internet has affected our lives most. Internet definately has made our lives more comfortable. Nowdays, we can do whatever we want in one seat with internet. We can read news, and weathers, shop, watch T.V., and have fun with games. However, on the other hand, it also makes people lazy because the internet makes everything simply. Some people spend pretty much time on the internet even without standing up once from seat. Using too much time on the internet can possibly cause diseases or obesity. But I'm not trying to say lets not use the internet. I indeed think we need internet, but I think it must be controllable.
I just can’t help but wonder what would be going through my dog’s mind one day when some robot would walk it around the neighborhood and not me. He probably won’t like that; in fact I’m sure of it. To make it worse, what if my dog is replaced by a droid someday? It’s not impossible. Who would have thought people would be wearing something called shoes when we all walked bare foot once? Yes, that is exactly how changes come into effect. We won’t realize it until it is too late to go back.
I believe that is exactly what will happen with the current state of our dependency on technology. Today, many of us call ourselves self sufficient, independent. I’m not sure if that is entirely true. When we say we clean our own apartment and do not need a maid, we are actually depending on a vacuum cleaner to do the work for us. When we need something urgent, we don’t have to look for someone to help us. We just go online and order. This time we are depending on the internet and E-Commerce that is getting popular every day. Its true that technology has made our lives easier and simpler. But my point is, with little things like these all added together, we do not even realize how much we are depending on technology. I think it would have been okay if we understood and admitted to what is making us “independent”. We need to comprehend the entire transition that we are going through if we are to face our futures.
Just the way our vacuum cleaners work today sucking up all the dust (unwanted things), machines, programmed to clean up obsolete things might take us humans as obsolete as well. That is not impossible either. Perfect examples are movies like Terminator, Eon Flux and I Robot.
Today we use specialized machines to work at the industries. They produce more, maximize our profits. But, we do not realize what effect it is having on the people who are losing their jobs because of that. The economy is producing more, but at the cost of thousands, starving. Besides, thinking about a car manufacturing company, the value of a hand built custom car, is far higher than a car that came out of a factory line up of thousands. It takes specialized hands working under experienced minds to create something special. That is what keeps the meaning of our lives alive.
Sorry for being late but I still have something to say about this topic.
Though the topic is "tech", I mainly see a debate around the pros and cons of massive implement of computers in the articles provided here. So I guess this is what to talk about.
As a Computer engineering students who has been playing with hardwares before entering elementary school , I strongly advocate the digitalization of every single thing.
However, I strongly disagree with the idea that people should work in front of a terminal, all day long, and five days a week. This is a widely accepted and practiced ridiculous misunderstanding of digitalization .
In my point of view, facing a screen while working/studying actually does no good to us at all, not mention the harm it does. Just as someone once said, "Computers made lots of things easier to be done, but before computer appears they just don't need to be done!". I'll just mention a simply example here to show you the rightness of the saying. Some people may argue that e-mail and IM softwares provided us instantaneous ways of communication, that's right, but why do we even need that? Do we really need some method for employees to wasting time and employers' money by greeting every friend on his/her address book every hour? Do we really need someone to ask question instantly but even before trying hard to think about the problem? Do we really need to eliminate the warmth and fragrance of hand writing letters using the cold and pitiless words rendered by something that's consuming our already-lacking energy?
My answer is a definite NO. And hopefully many will agree with me here.
That's my idea, computers should be servants, not revolutionists(they are now).
I would say yes, we are relying a whole lot on computers and other technology. However, I believe that having fears of losing touch with reality due to this is absolutely wrong. I understand the importance of being able to do things without technology, for example if doctors rely too much on their advanced equipment, their basic skills may dwindle. However, without technology, even more lives would be lost as there could be procedures which could not be done with technology.
Technology does not extend only to computers. Everything electronic could be considered technology. Even something as simple as heating in our houses is technology at work.
Technology is so important nowadays that almost everything we have now could not function without it. But having a fear of having too much reliance on technology is like saying we're afraid of a disease which our forefathers could contract. It would not matter to us anymore as our bodies have developed antibodies for said disease. This works for technology as well. People fear being helpless if for some reason all our technology fails. I don't believe this fear is justified as I really don't think that we're ever going to lose our technology. So in a way I would say that the question " are we relying too much on technology" is not valid.
Technology is a result of our own thoughts, creativity and trials. We wants to make our lives easier. technology is not confined into just computer or machinery. remember that medicine, antibiotics, planes, ships, and buildings are technology as well. Can you imagine living in the world pf stone age again, when people had to drag heavy materials around, have to battle simple sickness with possibility of death, and to hunt every time they want to eat? We have eased up our lives. We can now live conveniently, thanks to the nature of man, that want to keep on getting better. there is one problem posted, which is when computer crash in stock exchange place, things will go awfully. The same goes without computer. Human data recording is error prone, and I guess things will go for worse without the help of computer in such as large data recording place. We do not rely too much n technology. We keep on improving on it, means that we are not satisfied with the technology.
What would we do without any technology? or What can we do if computers are gone tomorrow? Will our society function? I want to imagine the situation before giving an aswer. In the morning, there will be no alarming clock. we will wake up late. We won't have a microwave that makes us breakfast. With out computers, we can't check internet, so we don't know what is going on in this world, and the own country. It will be a chaos. I can certainly say this society we are living is very dependent on technology. It will be a total chaos, if we lose our technology tomorrow.
We use computers everywhere. We pay tuition online, get grades online, and talk to my mother online. However, I wouldn't say we are relying too much on technology. So far, we are taking advantage of technology. In other word, we are using technology. Even though our interpersonal relationship and face to face relationship has gotten weaker since internet spreaded, people know the importance of face to face relationship. People like people. we like to meet people and we like our friends more than imaginary friends in online. We don't really fall in love online. We fall in love when we meet somebody in real life. This is why I think we are not relying too much on technology.
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