The Destructive Nature of Technology

From that first day that man discovered fire, the human race has continued its never-ending search to accomplish tasks in the most expedient manner possible. Society has decided that technology can be used to solve most of its immediate problems. This quest has brought us many useful things such as the telephone, the automobile, the oven, the CD player, etc. and has made living a little more enjoyable. If that were all, there would be no need to even mention these facts other than to advertise them. However, these so-called technological advances have also placed many hindrances on our daily life.

Probably the most immediately important of these technological mishaps was the invention of the computer. Computer programmers and engineers have found that computers can be used to run everyday appliances, design advanced and complicated architectural structures, and calculate enormous amounts of data all with amazing speed. Noting the key word speed, people decided that items such as computers must be purchased in order to improve performance in our daily lives by saving time. What the computer programmers and engineers neglected to mention was the fact that using the computer will accomplish your immediate task very efficiently, if you are able to use and maintain your computer for the life of the task.

As a technician, I get numerous calls everyday about how to overcome software problems, hardware problems, and everyday stupidity. The first two are usually a result of the third problem. That stupidity begins somewhere around the arrival of the initial thought to purchase the computer. Most people are fooled into believing that the need the fastest, most up to date and expensive technology to complete their task, despite the...

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...en, are surprisingly not related. Each problem needs to be addressed individually because there are no quick fixes (or "patches" in technical terms). Once the more intelligent people (I mean people with common sense and not people who believe they are technically skilled) begin to execute the above request, the evils of technology will find it hard to penetrate our walls of intelligence and morals. This will mean that only technology that our intelligence deems as perfect will be created and used, people will know what and how much technology they need, and most importantly, our children will be able to safely use technology and the Internet.

Work Cited:

i Ken Pohlmann - The X-tronic Generation, Digital Horizons column from Stereo Review's Sound & Vision, P38, February /March, 1999

ii Scott Adams - The Dilbert Future, HarperBusiness, p69, 1997