Essay Sample on Negative Effect of Technology

Introduction

Neil Postman, the author of "amusing ourselves to death'' has a number of sentiments in regarding the technological advancements and developments that are taking place on day to day basis in the present day. The author gives expectations of what ought to happen globally if the technology is left to distract humanity to an extent of passivity as well as narcissism. The same is true if warnings of the scientist studying global warming together with the effects on the planets get ignored. It is apparent that, the manner by which technology gets consumed in the modern world has resulted in critical physical and mental health issues such as the burden of lifestyle diseases, stress and metal related health issues and addiction problems. The age of information communication technology seems to fulfill what Neil Postman observed and prophesied in his book on "amusing ourselves to death". His book he posits how every civilization discourse gets biased by the form of media it uses. He describes it as a media metaphor and uses the television age to explain how it had eroded the traditional rational perspective of approaching any form of information (Postman, 25). He is critical on the new television media information which is so much focused on relaying information in an entertaining manner as opposed to a rational and more critical approach to help internalize the information. All in all, the reality of the matter is that there are a lot of ideas that trigger one to think and beyond be open to the reality in the contemporary of rapid technological advancements as well as developments. Regarding this, a number of scholars including Edward O. Wilson are of the opinion that harsh treatment of the earth by humanity will result in excruciating outcomes.

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In a review of the 1990s article by Edward O. Wilson "Is Humanity Suicidal?" In this article, Wilson undertook that increasing industrial world is resulting consequential impact on the global environment hence moving forward it may be not easy to handle thereby threatening the survival of the human species. The question is who has the ability to measure the human capacity of overcoming perceived limits of the earth? Limits of the natural resources together with the ability of the earth in the sustenance of the tough treatment of humanity tends to be unknown. According to Wilson, two perspectives regarding human species' future include exemptionalism (people who think problems of environment will disappear soon due to the growth as well as advancement of technology) and environmentalism. From the perspective of environmentalism, Wilson undertakes that the accelerated human efforts in trying to remake the earth hence control for human use the global environment tends to cause a lot of changes in the environment to an extent that Earth may soon than later be in a position of unable to support human race survival, hence the intelligence of the human can possibly be weapon for own human survival. More to that Wilson undertakes that humanity is smart in addition to having time to do away with the catastrophe of the environment that threatens civilization dimensions. In all aspect, it is important as well to acknowledge that there are other organisms in the ecosystem that ought to play their parts in addition to humans (Kumar, 347). This paper analysis negative effect of technology as it affects humans physically and mentally.

In the contemporary world, there is a lot of the vast usage of the tech solutions that are likely to result in human beings to have poor social skills especially when they have to meet physically. A case in point is that many of the business meetings in the present day are held over Skype while at the same time kids learn to chat by use of messenger instead of meeting with extended family members or friends in persons. The truth of the matter is that technology seems to have created as worldwide that has brought people together and in doing so replacing the real-life communication and ultimately the result is social isolation and mental illness. More to that strong social bonds are getting replaced with shallow and in most cases good for nothing "friends" in the social network. The result of all this that people end up feeling lonely as well as depressed. Especially the young generation has completely gotten into the habit of living in their own world and whenever surrounded by people all they do is to stare at their device screen. Whenever a real-life interaction is replaced with online communication, ability to read social cues such as tone of voice, body language, facial expressions as well as the direct wording is lost. Worse of it all, violent games completely kills one's empathy on top of destroying the life of an individual. Other negative effects of the technological advancement relating to this may include but not limited to copyright as well as plagiarism, interactions with fake persons and information and anonymity (Alesina, Alberto, Michele Battisti, and Zeira 41).

Instances where technology is not used properly it can subject one to a number of risks. This is so especially with children who tend to be more vulnerable to this negative effects of the technology. It is reported that one in three teenagers has been a victim of cyberbullying. From what been witnessed it is undertaken that offenders, mainly make use of the text messages as well as social media and other forums in reaching out their intentions to the targeted audience. In the present day, the internet has become the playing ground for online sex crime which has negatively affected many young people both physically and mentally. Sexting is as well another behavior that is very risky likely to be subjected to teens over the internet. It is shocking that according to the research carried out recently 39% of the teens admit to having sent sex messages while over half of the teenagers have received texts that have nudity. As a result of the increased number of the huge population using the internet there is a corresponding increased number of cases of cybercrime hence threating security. Today, it easier than it has never before to get someone's private information since the border of privacy ought to have been distorted. For instance with few clicks here and there, one is able to discover Facebook page containing all the relevant information, images, whereabouts and much other content that can be further used by cheaters for the purpose of hacking as well as viruses. Employers and other interested parties in one life make use of the search online to get to know such person better yes in some instances they may get exposed to photos and information that are unappealing or opinions and comments that are controversial. Eventually, all these technology security issues and privacy concerns end up negatively affecting the physical as well as mental state of the person subjected to them (Dragan, I. F., et al 20).

The new social media technologies made possible since the advent of internet technology has resulted in high levels of stress and depression especially among children and teenagers. There are different stressors in the social media that result in stress and depression among children and adolescents such as cyberbullying and gossip (Patchin, Justin and Hinduja 618). Postman observes that every civilization is affected by the level of bias on the information communication technology it is consuming. Several studies have shown the connection between teen and childhood exposure to social media platforms and a high prevalence of depression. The cyberbullying is very among the users of the new technology since it exposes the young and adult population to various forms of bullying such as intimidation, threats, exposure to pornography just to name but few.

There use of social media as the new form of communication technology have exposed the users to mental diseases such as high levels anxiety and depression due to low self-esteem (Patchin, Justin and Hinduja 615). Social media is biased and full of false information people posting to their newsfeeds gossips about how well they are faring in life. Everyone in the social media posts the "perfect" version of themselves and with new technologies such as Photoshop emerging there is a lot of biased posts in the social media that present the 'Ideal' body image. The impact of long exposure to such news in social media results into low self-esteem especially among the teens and young children fuelled by a feeling of a social misfit. Low self-esteem results in mental health issues such as heightened anxiety, poor social skills, stress, and depression.

Addiction to social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, youtube, and snap chat among others is blamed for increased physical harms such as those related to increased levels of road carnage. Research studies have identified text and driving as one of the major causes of road accidents resulting in loss of lives or becoming permanently disabled. Every year In America there are over 16000 road crashes that result from people using the phones to text while driving (Wilson n.p). These issues are caused by the addictive nature of mobile technologies especially texting on social media. Social media is very addictive just like is the case with drug abuse. The addiction behavior not only affects those who are driving but also jeopardizes the safety of all road users.

Research has shown that long exposure of the child to social media has an impact on increasing the risk of sleep disturbance which contributes to obesity and other related lifestyle diseases such as diabetes. The persuasive nature of the content that is consumed in social media has been cited as part of the reason for the increased prevalence of lifestyle diseases among the young children (Khajeheian p 2). Long hours spent on social media by children reduce the time used in engaging in physical exercise. Most of the time the child will use social media in a less physically engaging environment such while sitting with a laptop or a smartphone. The challenges of experiencing obesity at early childhood are connected with increased child mortality as well as other disabilities in the later stages of life. It is also critical to point out that obesity is not a physical problem but also a psychological one since the obese people are likely to have self-esteem issues with their body and that may result into stress and depression especially when they are ridiculed by peers.

The new technologies also have increased the rates of environmental pollution especially through the emission of greenhouse gases. Environmental pollution has a negative impact on human health by increasing the burden of diseases. There are serious issues posed by the increased use of digital media technologies such as the increased power consumptions and the production of carbon gases in the manufacture of media devices. Wilson exposed the dangers of environmental pollution and expressed the concerns on the need of controlling the rates of environmental pollution to ensure that the ecosystems survive for the benefit of the human race. The increased rate of pollution brought by new technologies poses a great threat to human physical health. High levels of environmental pollution have increased diseases such as asthma, cancer and other lifestyle diseases which have impacted negatively to the physical health of world human populations.

Conclusion

The new technology brings benefits as well as risks to the human life but more often the benefits are focused more while the negative impacts are overlooked. Technology impacts human mental health by increasing the risks of stress and other mental health issues such as depression. Technology has also created worldwide that has brought people tog...