The Excess of Technology in All the Areas of our Lives

What would life be without technology? Technology is unavoidable. Technology is everywhere. It’s a tool that has transformed people’s lives and the way the world operates. Several individuals today are tremendously obsessed with the use of technology that it has become an essential feature in their everyday lives to an extent that they can’t imagine living without it. Without a doubt, technology has made life effortless, simpler, and more straightforward as it has increased advancements in education, medicine, and other professions.

Although technology has bettered our lives with its different forms of use and its numerous benefits, it has continuously resulted in negative effects on our society, our physical health, and the environment. Societies are made of individuals. A healthy society is based on healthy individuals and families. Emotional connections between individuals result in the formation of a healthy society and, thus a healthy nation. Technology plays a great role in connecting and maintaining relationships among people. In an article published in The Guardian titled Is technology helping families communicate or holding them back? Carrie Dunn investigates the role of technology in today’s families, and thus in today’s societies. A clinical psychologist, Lucy Maddox said to her, “These technologies are really good at sustaining relationships when there’s distance involved.” However, technology does more harm to relationships than any other element. It’s evident from the increase in the number of suicides, divorces, cyber-bullying, and scams. Technology opens up a battlefield where everyone is a warrior without any social commitments. People today are more interested in virtual relationships rather the real ones. Relationships being the lifeblood of a society, this trend is slowly ruining the harmony of a society. The dominating presence of social media many a time causes hate crimes and communal violence. False news today spreads like a fire destroying many innocent lives due to the far and wide-reaching of technology. Contrary to the popular belief, technology doesn’t make sure the physical well-being of its users though it has a massive impact on them.

According to an article published in the Huffington Post titled Sneaking Ways Technology Is Messing With Your Body And Mind by Lindsay Holmes lists down some physical effects caused by modern devices. She discusses the findings from a research by a spine surgeon Kenneth Hansraj, “...when you tilt your head 60 degrees to stare at your phone, you’re putting 60 pounds of pressure on your neck.” This simple posture, we make every time we have to look at our phones, would harm our spine and would wind us up in a surgery room. USA Today reported that around 70% of Americans have “experienced symptoms of digital eye strains” which could lead to serious damage to the eye. Sleep disorders, finger and arm problems, and physical inactivity are other negative effects of technology on our health. Environment has been the victim of technology. As technology advances, the greater becomes the damage caused to the environment. The machines that use petroleum as fuel emit polluting gases into the atmosphere. When our cars and airplanes become more and more sophisticated to give us more comfort, the price that is paid is beyond measurable. Ray Bradbury in his novel Fahrenheit 451 writes, “But you can't make people listen. They have to come round in their own time, wondering what happened, and why the world blew up around them. It can't last.” He portrays the human condition today as caught up in a confusion created by the technological revolution. This expanding technology gives us a false sense of control over everything. However, we don’t realize that the technology that we created to help us is destroying our very habitat. Technology has turned us into insensitive consumers. Our wants are met at the cost of the environment. Mining, deforestation, and carbon emission are done to satisfy our desires which wouldn’t be possible without technology. These harmful activities are carried out like never before.

The use of gadgets, the generation of waste, and the excess power consumption are all the result of advancements in technology. Technology has been there to assist us in solving our problems and meeting our needs. However, the excess of technology in all the areas has reached a point where we serve technology instead of technology serving us. The influence of technology has negatively affected us in all the areas of our lives. Technology is controlling us. We are being controlled by a tool just because we let it interfere in our lives. People, nowadays, should try to avoid technology because the use of it seems to be affecting our society, physical health, and environment which is why we need to look at this issue more seriously.