Digital Technology: An In-Depth Look at Its Disadvantages

In the world today, technology has become very important because it is used for almost everything. According to newton’s law that every action has a reaction, so does technology which has its advantages as well as disadvantages. Technology has made people almost impossible to live without technologies such as televisions, mobile phones, computers and others. Mostly mobile phones which had already become a need from want. These technologies had gradually conquered an essential part in human life that it is unimaginable to live without them.

The development of technology has given humans many benefits. The most important fact is technology has made communication easier. It has been able to make the whole world into one village. With technology world has become virtually smaller. The invention of telephone was the first step of it. Then came the computer which made the communication enhanced.

Thanks to the internet and versatile advancements, rather than being restricted to communicate with the people within our region or physical vicinity, we now have been able to communicate with almost anyone in the planet. Not just within the planet, we can communicate with the people who are working in space stations in the space. This has some incredible positives for both work and home life.

The evolution of technology is beneficial to human lives. When we consider science and medicine, technology has done a great role in diagnosing diseases and treatments to them. With technologies like MRI, PET, CT Scans as well as computerized robots, ventilator machines, health monitoring devices, technology has been able to save many human lives.

Versatile working has been more common with the development of technology. The idea of work has been changed by computerized innovation. Development of communication and expanded connectivity methods has given people more opportunities to work remotely. At present working from home has become so common. Many companies offer work from home and crossover work. You can work from Sri Lanka for a company based in Australia. If you are sick or have a medical condition such as an accident that you can’t travel, you now can work from home without a trouble.

With digital technology, machines have become smarter in doing tasks allocated. There are that has completely replaced human work by machines. This has made workers free from boring repetitive tasks and machines are able to do the task more efficiently, accurately and safely.

Modern innovation spares us loads of time, regardless of whether it's our fully automatic washing machine doing our laundry or computerized banking to enable us to pay with online without visiting the shop, or get money out from the ATM without having to wait in long queues. Technology improves daily lives so many ways. According to Carrie Snow “Technology... is a queer thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other “. Likewise evolution of modern technology has many disadvantages.

Humans have become too much dependent on technologies. A very simple example is that people no longer do calculation mentally and using their memory. They tend to use calculators for even small calculations. Dependence upon cell phones, PCs, and other digital devices has turned out to be normal. Many people have all their contact information, photographs, texts, and other personal information on their phones. Many individuals have stored their personal information and data on digital devices. In case if they lose or run outs of power, there is a tendency that they may have to face so much of inconveniences. Basic thigs like finding the road and route has been replaced by mobile devices using GPS. In case the devise is malfunctioning they will be lost in the middle. Even education has become dependent on technology. Most of the assignments that students are allocated with needs internet and computers. When we consider about a whole country, the hospitals, power grids, transportation, defense etc. are reliant on technology. One cyber-attack or a failure can cause chaos and catastrophe.

One of the most harmful disadvantage caused by digital technology is social disconnection. Nowadays most of the people have the tendency to communicate and socialize through digital devices rather than through real life contact. People are connected with strangers and friends far away while they don’t talk to the family member next to them. They lose themselves in the virtual world so that they have no idea what’s happening around them in real time. This leads to a sense of disconnect and isolation. This lacking of real life contact make people depressed and other mental illnesses. Many people no longer experience real life events directly. Musical shows are recorded or telecasted online. Videos and photos are taken. People tend to enjoy them at home rather than being there physically. They experience the life through the prism of digital media than directly through the naked eye. They enjoy a second hand experience that is shared by a person who had a first-hand experience. Second hand experiences has reduced the quality of human lives.

Digital technology can be so addictive if not used wise. Games and social media has people addicted to them like drugs. Some people are unable to live without them. Even when they are doing some other work, their brain always ask for them. They lose concentration on real life work. They spend all their free time looking at the mobile phones throughout the night which results in not getting proper sleep. They eyes get affected by these. Addiction can end up humans in lots of heath conditions.

Value for human beings at workplaces are becoming less and less with the replacement of machines. Not only by machines, But a lot by outsourcing. Outsourcing jobs save companies so much of money. Most developed countries tend to outsource work to Asian countries which has low cost of labour. This cause the natives in the developed to lose jobs and cause unemployment. As technology develops so the does the rate of crime. The internet and technology is a knife that can be used for good as well as bad. It can do good for the humanity if used properly as well as destroy the humanity. Rate of cybercrime has become increasingly more over time. With internet terrorism can be widely spread. It has become easy to spread hatred among the people using technology. Paedophiles, sex traffickers, drug dealers use internet to do all their illegal activities taking the advantage of the ability to hide the true identity in the internet. In the virtual world, anyone can become anyone. Not only cybercrimes, this has cause modern warfare among nations. Cyber wars to be precise.