Topic > Side Effects of Technological Advances

Technology could be anything from a wooden pencil to a touchscreen laptop. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Technology could be about anything as simple as a house, a chair, or a bottle of water. However, most likely when a person hears the word "technology", he immediately thinks of the latest Apple product or the new and expanded Samsung Galaxy. Technology has both helped and hurt our society. People have developed so much and become so advanced through technology that one might often wonder whether it is actually beneficial to human society or not. While technology may seem like a gift, many arguments can be made that simplicity is more beneficial to the human condition. The most obvious change resulting from technology is the gradual lack of people communicating face-to-face. Now it's much easier to send a question or reply to someone via phone or social network. Previously, people would talk during dinner time and not devour food so they could get to the computer as soon as possible. A sixteen-year-old boy interviewed by Sherry Turkle said he "[would] like to learn how to converse" because all he knows is how to use the phone to text other people. Being able to talk to others is increasingly becoming a desired, but not easily acquired skill as time goes on. As Turkle says, “we are together, but we are each in our own bubble”; Nowadays we're just too busy on Facebook watching Vine videos. However, if humans focused on a simpler society with less technology, they would not have the increasingly prominent problem of people not communicating properly. The height of one's vocabulary decreases dramatically when online, because "we tone down our communications, even on the most important topics." We start to stop using correct grammar, a skill that almost all people lose when they connect to the Internet. People gradually begin to become stupid to the point where they do not reach the level of intelligence that they should have had less than half a century ago. Despite having great technology for research and development of people's brains, humans most often abuse it; instead of working on that research paper, the student enjoys watching cat videos on YouTube. In his free time, he might opt ​​for a quick game of Halo instead of studying for the test that's coming up in a couple of days. People say that advances made in technology should make their society smarter, but if nothing else, research has shown that years ago, people were smarter without all the fancy bells and whistles available today. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper now from our expert writers. Get a Custom Essay It is quite easy to live without technology. Henry David Thoreau even pointed out that “[he] could easily have done without the post office,” which was one of the major technological advances of his time. Instead of complaining about the slowness of the Internet, he should instead complain about how unconstructive the Internet has become. We live “in such a hurry and waste… life” because of technology and its harmful blessing in disguise. Opting for simplicity would not only be a much more valid and favorable solution to the problems of incommunicability and intelligence decay, but also a simple solution.