Free Custom «Positives and Negatives of Technology» Essay Paper

The world has experienced an extensive development in the world of technology in the past three decades that have seen so many things change in the society. Some of these changes are positive while others are negative. In this paper, we will analyze some of the positive impacts that technology has had on society and the negative impacts, on the other hand. Generally, an outer look at technology gives the positive point of view. This is so because of how society has made us perceive the concept of technology, we tend to view technology as something that it should make things easier, simpler, and more efficient. We see technology as a solution to almost all the world’s problems. This may or may not be true in the actual sense as we are going to see in this discussion.

Technology has facilitated large-scale production in most production firms all over the world. In the past years, production in many countries was purely human labor oriented. Human labor is not highly productive as automated production. In addition, when a company dwells most on human labor for its production, it is likely to incur high production costs and relatively lower revenues. This means that the overall profit levels of firms that use human labor in the place of automated production will be lower than profit levels for firms that embrace technology in their production lines (Margaret A. White 45).

Secondly, technology has had a tremendously positive impact to the field of research and development. The invention of computers has enabled the analysis and storage of large academic data. The invention of Google as a search engine is one major positive that technology has had on the field of research and development. Scholars and researchers can get academic and other important information on the internet using Google. Initially, before these technological innovations came into operation, research activities were so tedious in such a way that individuals had to literally look for information from printed literature like books and journals. This was so hectic that it slowed down the development of academic research.

Technology accelerates the manner in which people can do things. A good example is the introduction of the car. Initially, people could move from one place to another either by foot of bicycles. This meant that they had to waste a lot of time in movement. However, after the introduction of cars, individuals can cover distances that they used to cover in two hours within 10 minutes. Another illustration of how technology accelerates processes the innovation of the printers. Earlier on, people used to do their typing work on typewriters, which was a hectic process that was highly rigid (Shrader-Frechette 89). However, after the innovation of computers and printers, one can type his work more faster that when using a typewriter, and use the fast printers, which save time.

Technology has helped to improve the information sector. This is evident in the way information can reach a relatively larger population in the present world, compared to how the situation was in a number of years back. The invention of social sites such as Face book and twitter have enhanced to distribution of information all over the world. This improvement in the information and communication sector has also had an impact on the business field, where businesspersons can now transact and make orders, purchases, and payments online.

Despite having many positives to the society, we cannot neglect the negative contributions of technology towards the society. First, as much as technology has brought efficiency in the production sector, in so doing, it has led to a social problem. Before the introduction of a technological innovation in the production system of a company, the company had employed a number of employees in that department. However, after the introduction of the automated system, most of the employees will lose their jobs. This increases the level of unemployment in the society, which derails the efforts of the government to achieve one of its macroeconomic goals; reducing unemployment.

Secondly, technology has had a tremendous contribution to moral decadence. Innovations like Google and television allows anyone, regardless of his age or background, to have access to morally unaccepted literature like pornographic movies. The programs on local television channels have sexual content, which spoils the innocent child (White and Bruton 48). Therefore, as much as technology has enhanced the transfer of information from one place to another, the access of children to such unaccepted literature comes in as a negative impact.

Another negative impact of technology is its contribution to crime. Presently, most police units are reporting many cases of cyber crime and crimes using mobile phones. Some individuals have invented software, which they can use to hack security systems of their targets such as government systems or any other organization. This software can crack the security codes of any system, allowing them to continue with their evil actions.

Another negative impact that technology has on the society is the health hazards that come about due to some technological inventions. When individuals expose themselves to some rays that are a product of scientific inventions, they are likely to suffer from health complications such as cancer.

Generally, we can see that technology is a concept that society embraces though it has as many negatives as the positives. This shows that, before we embrace any technological innovation, it is always better analyze the general effects of that particular innovation to the community.