The Impact of Technology On Our Lives Today

Technology has played a prominent role in the development of various industries; it has changed the banking sector, changed education, changed the agricultural industry, changed the entertainment world, it has restructured many businesses. The impacts of technology cannot be measured because it is still changing the way we do everything. However, technology also has some adverse effects. Below I have listed some impacts of technology on our lives both positive and negative.

Impact of Technology on Business

Positive

• Improved competitive advantage

Businesses have use technology to gain the competitive advantage over their competitors. If a business uses technology to improve its services or products, its customers will be impressed and they will become loyal to that business as well as invite more customers through word of mouth. Advanced technology can result in better customers service and production of high-quality products or services.

• Improved communication

Business to consumer communication has been improved by use of technology. Now a business can easily communicate to its clients to know how they feel about their services. The information collected is used to improve on the services of the business which results in business growth. For example, businesses can use social Medias to hold product surveys.

• Improved human resource management

A business can use technology to recruit and train new employees. Nowadays there are unlimited Job boards online where companies post jobs and applicants apply through that online Job board.  This simplifies all process of hiring and it saves time.

Negative

• Technology is expensive as well

Even though we use technology to solve operational costs in business and increase on productivity. To buy the machine which will replace 10 humans to perform a certain tusk is quite expensive. This machine will require continuous maintenance and a standby technician to operate it and fix it in case it brakes down. So technology is expensive as well.

Impact of Technology on Education

Positive

• Globalization of Education

Technology has made education remote. With the help of internet technology, online education has become a strong force in the education sector. Now students can study courses which are provided in other countries without having any boundary limitations.

Negative

• Exposure to wrong data

Though technology has made learning so easy and cheap, students get exposed to data which is not approved and many times they just copy and pastes this information they acquire online without any deep research on whether the data is correct. This has increased the level of misinformation and failure of exams. My advice to students is that ” Not whatever is published online is correct” analyze the data and discuss with friends before submitting that data.

Impact of Technology on Society

Positive

• Improved the transportation sector

Technology has made the movement so easy and cheap, technologies like automobiles, airplanes, speedboats, electronic trains, have made moving from one place to another so easily.

• Improved on human relationships and connection

Technology has improved on how we connect or discover new relationships. With things like mobile phones and internet social Medias, people can connect with each so easily than before.

Negative

• The Digital Divide is on Increase

 As much as we’re embracing technology in most developed countries, there is a big group left behind and they might not even get close to the way we use technology in the first world.  For example, the invention of the e-wallet is a good technology which will help you to pay for anything via your iPhone, but as good as this technology may be, many countries in the third world cannot use the service.

• Lack Or Real Life and Friends

Yes, social networks and text messaging technologies have played a very big role in connecting people more than before, but what is funny is that the number of people who spend time alone is increasing. You will find a person spends more time in the virtual world chatting with strangers ‘’virtual friends’’, a user will have over 500 friends on a specific social network, but they have no real friends in the real world, WHY? Because they spend most their time in the virtual world and give up on getting real friends, which results in loneliness and cyber-sickness.

• Virtual Reality Technology “Sickness”

Nowadays most airlines use this virtual reality technology to train their pilots on how to react effectively in adverse conditions. So during this training, the pilot will be presented with a challenge in a virtual reality form and they will be guided on how to overcome that task. For example, many pilots are faced with bad weather and defective engines. The pilot will be presented with the same challenge in a virtual reality world and they train how to overcome the challenge.

Now here is the problem:

The pilot in question has been exposed to a virtual life and if they do this for so long, it creates an imbalance in their life. They find a problem of living the other virtual life to a real one. So they keep getting flashbacks, eyestrain and simulator sickness.  If you spend a lot of time in a virtual reality system that uses a low-resolution headset for displaying views, you may experience eyestrain issues.  When the resolution is too low, your eyes are forced to work harder to distinguish images.

Then also some people will have flashbacks of what they experience in the virtual reality world. In most cases, the brain must fight to separate the other life from the real life. During this processing of differentiating what is fake from what is real, you will potentially experience “déjà vu” or a temporary dissociation with reality.

Impact of Technology On Agriculture

Positive

• Increased production

With the introduction of genetically engineered crops, farmers outputs have increased. These crops are engineered when they can stand harsh conditions as well has survived pests and diseases. They grow very first and the farmer gets back their return on investment (RIO) very first.

Negative

• Soil pollution

Farmers have resorted to using chemicals and engineered fertilizers so that their plants grow faster. This has worked for the farmer in the short run, but after a while, the soil losses its natural fertility and the farmer will have to depend on artificial fertilizers which are expensive in the long run.

Impact of Technology on Banking

Positive

• Electronic Banking

Banks have improved their services by using technology to introduce electronic banking. Customers can use online banking facilities to transfer money or get financial information, they can also use smart cards to withdraw or deposit money into their accounts.

Negative

• E-cash and Financial Data Can Be Hacked 

As we try to replace cash money with e-cash, like bitcoin, etc we are faced with a problem of losing money very easily. Today their so many hackers online monitoring these electronic file transfers, though most merchants have formulated a trick of encrypting the files, still these hackers find their way and access the data. Another loophole is the exposure of financial details to dangerous people. Most of this information is stored on our computers.  However, when you connect to the internet, an experienced hacker can access your computer via your IP and take advantage of all your financial details.