Technology Is Not Our Foe

By Viren Sachdev

Fearing technology and innovation is understandable, but in the industry and the new world, technology has revolutionized every human’s life.

Has technology become more harmful than helpful to Gen Z? Image from pxhere.com

I get it; people are worried that technology will destroy the world and the human species. I have a different perspective on technology in our lives. Let me begin by admitting that some inventions went a little off-track. The creators at Facebook invented the “like” button to spread happiness and positivity. They could not have predicted that too many or not enough “likes” might affect the mental health of Gen Z. But, where there is a problem, there is often a solution. We do not need to stop technology. Instead, we should change the way young people think about themselves and educate them about infinite opportunities worldwide.

If you think about it, the worries people have about technology are similar to the time when people did not know that the earth was round. People were terrified to travel to distant places. When we discovered this basic fact, the world changed and new doors opened. Technology has created so many opportunities that keep changing our lives. A decade ago, video call technology made it possible for us to see and speak to someone on the other side of the world anytime we want. This is what experts call time-space compression.

Despite the positive changes made possible by technology, there are counterarguments, worth responding to:

1. Technology eliminates people's jobs. That's what tech is made for, to make life easier for people, not by taking away their jobs but by doing it more efficiently and quickly. When tech eliminates roles in a company, the company saves wages and is able to expand, which creates more jobs rather than taking them away.

2. Technology will take over the whole planet. Hasn't it already but in the right way? Connecting us are wires and optical cables everywhere, under the ocean floor and in the roadways. These cables keep the world up and running.

3. Technology is addictive. Have you heard the phrase "Anything in excess is bad?" Same goes with technology. A good example can be that if we compare a software engineer, who knows technology in and out, it is very likely that they are deficient on social media or do not have an account. On the other hand, a high school teenager can spend as much as 10 hours a day alone, wasting their time on the Internet, which takes us to the topic of the Internet. Everything has a bright and dark side. Some websites that help you to waste your time like Facebook and Instagram are the dark sides of the Internet, whereas the rest of the places you are getting to learn something new. For example, if you can’t solve a problem, it’s highly likely that someone in the world solved it and put the solution on the Internet.

It’s time that we stop blaming technology for all our problems and start recognizing that it has revolutionized human life. In fact, there are technologies that we have yet to discover. In the future, things that seem impossible to us right now, like increasing the power of the brain through biotech, will probably be a reality. With the help of neural links and time travel predictions using AI, we may be able to one day understand some of the biggest mysteries of the human species. I am very excited about the future of technology.