Is Technology Boon or Curse?

Nikhil Musale
Sep 8, 2018 · 5 min read

The Origin of word Technology comes from Greek. The meaning of technology is “an art related to science”. Technology converts principle of science in the process, through technology theories of science, converts into practical paradigms. It is an art which helps us to make our life easy.

Tire used by humans in old age.

A birth of technology happened a way back thousands year ago, some says that Tire is the first invention of human beings but the way of making tire is technology, obviously there must be some tool by which they molded a stone into round shape. As a year passed technology evolved. The human kind made inventions through their understanding of science and with the help of technology, so in simple word, technology makes human life easy to achieve their daily goals. From the last 200 years evolution technology increased rapidly and from last 30 years, the whole world has been seeing the magic done by Information Technology.

We all use technology in our daily life consciously or subconsciously. From button cell to AC, telephone to the smartphone, simple house to hundred floor buildings and desktop to laptop these are all example of technology.

Old vs Modern Farming

Let us take an example, just 50 years ago there were no tractors, so farmer had to farm his land with the help of bulls but today he can easily farm his land via tractors.

Industrial Revolution

Technological inventions begin with an evolution of the humankind but from last 200 years, the speed of inventions and discovery is increased. The reason behind it was the Industrial Revolution and today we live in the age of Information technology. In these 200 years thousands of inventors and scientists had contributed to society by their inventions, discoveries and theories, let’s mention few of them, Thomas Edison, Nicola Tesla, Albert Einstein, Max plank, Alan Turing, Srinivasa Ramanujan etc … These all contributed to society to their best. From 1970 people saw exponential growth in technology in form of computers. Computers enhanced our lives, it is like a magical box, whatever commands given by user it follows. Computers increase storage capacity, so we can store thousands of files in a single machine. Theses storage capacity is increasing with respect to time. Today we can store lots of data of different format in a single device like a hard drive or pen drive. Today everything is digitized. Most influential technology is the internet, we use 4G data pack for every wireless device, so we can communicate with each other easily and get every type of information on our fingertip. This is literally amazing.

Hey! But there is one rule, every advantage comes with some disadvantage, like eat fast food and letter suffer from indigestion. Technology comes with immense benefits but there is also that level of cons, which I would like to bring in to the light. We think technology is helpful for us, but in reality, it also makes us handicap! Not physically but mentally.

Social Platforms Addiction

Today most of the youth are addicted to social technology like Facebook, Whats-app, Instagram, hike, twitter etc … You find most of the people online all the time, and online means? It’s not necessary that they use this platform for a better purpose. Most of the people use to upload their pictures, videos, status and after that they wait for like and comment (The girls are slightly more enthusiastic in these activities 😊). Most of the post on social media is unnecessary. A ratio of fraud is increased due to these social platforms. There is a number of people who have been swindled till this date.

Cyber-Crime

People go through serious cases due to these frauds. A new type of crime had been developed called cyber-crime. Today professional hackers can easily find loopholes in websites, web app or computer systems and can easily steal your data.

Let us take another example of a computer and mobile games. From KB to GB all kind of games are available in the market and in google play store thousands of games freely available, due to this ratio of outdoor games decreased and this computer games increased. The young generation is addicted to this computer games, let’s mention few of them, Pubg, Call of Duty, Assassin Creed, Project IGI, God of War, Counter Strike etc.

Interesting Games of Old Days

We might have more fun from these games but we losing our outdoor games like hide-and-seek, Gilli Danda, mountain and river, Kho Kho, Kabaddi, Lagori and many more. All these games are far better than computer games.

Question arise in my mind is where this technology is leading us? Is it really useful or its just Mirage, by providing a solution for our day to day life challenges isn’t it really making us lethargic? Nowadays most of us preferred vehicle for a very short distance, which can be covered by walking.

Our Daily Feed for a Mind

Google the most used search engine in the world has all the answer of the world, by providing all these answers isn’t it reduce our thinking capability. TV, YouTube, and other entertainment apps provide us with the best quality entertainment but aren’t it take away our creativity from us? As more we engage in these kinds of activity, idler we become and certainly it is not good, so we need to think where we need to stop?

From my point of view, we need to use technology cautiously because it may lead us to the wrong path. Before the era of television begin, people use to listen to a radio and gave more importance to books and literature. Even children spent hours snuggled with books and used to write letters to their family members and now our so-called new generation actively glue to the television and mobile phones. Outdoor activity decreased, and online activity increased.

I would like to stop here by only writing these last words, “Technology gives us immense benefits, it can become boon for us but if we use it imprudently, it can also doom us.”

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