Does Technology Yield More Harm Or More Good In Our Lives?

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Jim Mannoia found himself stuck in traffic on a Los Angeles freeway, his left leg aching from maneuvering the heavy standard transmission in the stop-and-go traffic, sweltering in the heat because his air conditioner was not working and the vehicle was beginning to overheat at the engine level as well as inside the passenger compartment. Worst of all was that the radio was not working. Feeling rightly miserable, he noticed a BMW in the lane beside him, its windows rolled up tight against the heat while undoubtedly the air conditioner blew at full blast. He could hear the bass lines of the car’s stereo and even wondered how the driver could hear well enough to carry on his cell phone conversation.

Feeling sorry for himself, Mannoia instantly felt pangs of guilt as he recalls, “I felt envious, inferior, and even a little powerless until I remembered the Mozambican families I had seen sitting stunned and stark naked in the refugee camp that summer of ‘88. They had walked for months through bandit-ridden bush often at the cost of family death and personal mutilation at the hands of bandits. My thoughts of those refugees were interrupted as President Reagan’s helicopter convoy beat through the air over our virtual parking lot, enroute from Pt. Magu Naval Air Station north to the ‘ranch’ above Santa Barbara. As we both sat and watched, I wondered if my freeway ‘neighbor’ shared my sense of how technology shapes our lives” (Mannoia, 1997; p. Techpap).

It was only 50 years ago that we began to have wonderful labor-saving devices to help accomplish all the tasks that collectively constituted the perfect home environment. Sometimes it has the effect of removing all the reasons that everything cannot be done all the time and so results in more work rather than less, but few of us can imagine living without washing machines, vacuum cleaners or dishwashers—or electricity, for that matter.

But in the use of the term “technology” today, there is far more associated meaning than automobiles or washing machines. It has ushered in an entirely new way of working, and in increasing numbers of organizations, increased options of just where work associated with a particular job will be done. More employees than ever have the option of working at home yet still being employed either full...

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.... It is our use that determines the worth of it, and only we can determine whether that use will be beneficial or for harm. In what can be accomplished through its application, the ultimate conclusion is that its benefits far outweigh its potential for and history of abuse.

References

Anonymous (1998, June 23). Keeping in Touch With Americans: New Survey on Attitudes About Messaging Technologies Finds More Hope Than Hype About 'Overload' Problem. Business Wire, p. PG.

Anonymous (1998, January 12). Quality of Life Executive Summary. At http://www.supportinc. com/Outcomes.htm.

Collins, Sara (1993, June 7). Saving lives isn't cheap. U.S. News & World Report, p. 56.

Computerworld Staff (1994, June 6). High-tech Heroes. Computerworld, p. 119.

Gould, Carol C. (ed.) (1989). The Information Web: Ethical and Social Implications of Computer Networking. (Boulder, Colorado : Westview Press).

Hillman, Bruce J. (1997, September 6). Medical imaging in the 21st century. The Lancet, vol. 350, p. 731.

Mannoia, Jim (1997, May 15). A philosopher looks at the effect of modern technology on our view of human life. At http://www.houghton.edu/offices/acad_dean/Techpap.htm.

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