The Negative Impact of Technology: Unemployment, Laziness, Environmental Issues, and Health Concerns

Technology is the application of technical familiarity to the everyday objectives of human life. The term "technology" rose to fame in the 20th century, connected to the Second Industrial Revolution. The emergence of technology came with numerous advantages such as improved efficiency in production and the production of quality products. However, technology is not as beneficial as people might think. This paper's main objective is to determine how technology is not beneficial to the way people think. For instance, even though technology has greatly simplified the way people live and do things, it has a range of detrimental effects on society.

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The incorporation of technology in production greatly promoted efficiency in production but came with adverse implications. The invention of automatic machines has contributed to an increase in unemployment (Freeman et al., 5-11). There is an extensive list of machines used by various companies to do human activities such as packing products, providing security, and even using computers to perform accounting arithmetics. These machines took over the duties and responsibilities that humans formally did thus contributing to the increase in unemployment. For instance, modern technology, such as cloud computing, has hugely put the accounting job at risk. Cloud computing is more effective than humans, and thus, it is estimated that, by 2027, the job opportunities for accountants will be minimal.

Similarly, the invention of technology has resulted in laziness among employees. Humans use some technological inventions to perform their jobs, and hence without them, they cannot deliver their duties effectively. Students use some machines such as calculators to solve complex arithmetic. Since they are too delicate and can break down at any time, they cannot solve simple maths due to laziness and over-dependence. The presence of cloud computing leads to enhanced efficiency in production but still, they are prone to cybercrime, which may lead to massive loss of company information in the occurrence of system hacking.

Several machines used in production undergo incomplete combustion and release massive harmful fumes in the form of carbon monoxide. These fumes interfere with the ecosystem and thus endanger the life of humans and animals like leading to respiratory diseases. Additionally, carbon monoxide gas's constant emission depletes the ozone layer and results in global warming. It results in a small amount of rainfall, which leads to drought. When this happens, human and animal lives are in danger because of famine and water scarcity. Some machines discharge a lot of waste, which kills marine animals such as fish. Simultaneously, the discharge of such machines leads to the drying of plants, which are a source of human and animal food.

Moreover, technological advancement, such as genetically modified organisms (GMOs) has detrimental side effects on human life. According to numerous researches, GMO-related products are the root cause of cotemporally chronic diseases such as cancer, obesity, hypertension, and stroke (Lee et al., 21). Such products are heavily made up of high contents of chemicals that interfere with human bodies. It has been proved that, when humans consume such products, the chemicals contained in the products greatly interfere with body processes such as blood flow, digestion, and even brain functions. As an effect, they result in deadly diseases, which are currently the cause of 71% of deaths worldwide. Moreover, the invention of family-planning contraceptives has been reported to be the major cause of prostate cancer. The same family planning contraceptives are major causes of bareness in women.

Technology advancement has resulted in moral decay among youths. People have extensively used social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook, and Twitter to share dirty content, contributing to society's increased immorality. On numerous occasions, people share pornography and other dirty content, which has adversely contributed to immorality among the youth. Besides moral decay, these social media platforms have been used extensively as avenues where radicalization takes place. Many rowdy terrorist groups such as Al Shabab and Boko haram use these social media platforms as avenues where they lure the youths with money to join their groups (Ahad et al., 26-36). It has resulted in a massive loss of lives due to increased terror attacks. Besides terror attacks, many people have been using these social media platforms to share racist information, which has contributed to hatred among communities and nations.

Technology advancement, especially the invention of mobile gadgets and the internet, has greatly improved the speedy sharing of information, and thus they cannot be ignored. However, mobile phones and the internet have hugely contributed to cheating and the eventual break up of marriages (Muhammad et al., 67-71). Many marriages have been terminated due to the presence of mobile phones and the Internet. Married individuals can easily meet others through Facebook and Twitter and secretly cheat on their partners. People may share intimate content with others apart from their spouses. When such information leaks to the public, the marriages end in divorce. In respect to these electronic gadgets particularly mobile phones contribute to unethical behaviors which lead to mistrust and eventual divorce in marriages.

Similarly, continuous use of mobile phones, the internet, and the rest of social media platforms such as Facebook leads to withdrawal disorders. People get addicted after prolonged use of these devices and social media platforms, which makes them experience feelings of despair and loneliness when they cannot access them. People get addicted to media platforms and Facebook, particularly to the extent that they cannot concentrate at work without being online. These people develop poor concentration and therefore end up losing their jobs.

Works Cited

Freeman, Shannon, et al. "Intergenerational effects on the impacts of technology use in later life: Insights from an international, multi-site study." International journal of environmental research and public health 17.16 (2020): 5-11.

Lee, MinHwa, et al. "How to respond to the fourth industrial revolution, or the second information technology revolution? Dynamic new combinations between technology, market, and society through open innovation." Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity 4.3 (2018): 21.

Ahad, Abdul, et al. "Challenges and impacts of technology integration/up-gradation in the education industry: a case study." Journal of Systems Integration 9.2 (2018): 26-36.

Muhammad, Niaz Makhdum, et al. "The Negative Impacts of EdTech: EQ Perspectives." Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference. Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE), 2019.67-71