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Chaymae

Prof. Hellmers

ENG.1201.512

March 30, 2022

How does technology affect our lives?

Technology has been a part of our lives for a very long time and seeing its pros and cons

can help us find the best way to benefit from it without harming ourselves in the process. In this

paper, I’m going to define the advantages of having technology as an important part of our

everyday life, and at the same time the disadvantages.

By the early 20th century, people started appreciating the access that machines, tools, and

new ideas gave them to most fields. It wasn’t until midcentury that people started recognizing

technology as the means to manipulate and change one’s own environment. This went on for

years, until humanitarians started talking about the negative effects that technology was leaving

on people. Environmentally, the use of gas, fossil fuse, and many newer developed elements

started doing more damage that we realized. People were also getting replaced with machines

causing the unemployment rate to increase. The list of the disadvantages of technology kept

adding as the years passes. Yet, in Rio Luo article, a PhD student and graduate teaching assistant,

he mentions how the growth of the capital-human capital ratio is driven by technological change,

and that because of technology people from all working groups and races benefited from

economic growth. Today, the debate on whether the benefits of technology outweigh its

drawbacks is still continuing.

Many scientists believe that technology is the reason we’re able to achieve so many

things in life easily “We're privileged to be living in a time where science and technology can
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assist us.” Says Max Langridge. Mr. Langridge is an experienced Staff Writer with a

demonstrated history of working in the publishing industry, making him reliable to talk about

this topic. This point of view is one of the main ones, and there is no denying the evidence

supporting it. Machines, ideas, and all the tools that humans have today wouldn’t be here without

man’s use of technology. Yet, Hugh McArthur, an information security officer at Online

Resources Corp, an online bill-processing company insists that the danger that it causes may be

more than its good. “Another day, another vulnerability” referring to the ability of launching

attacks using only smart devices.

In his article, “Life in the future: Tech that will change the way we live.” Mark brings a

new idea about how one of the best technology development is creating Robots. They are

currently being sent to explore space and even considered to start seen in the workplace. “Robots

don't need to worry about oxygen to breathe or food to eat.” This advantage is soon considered a

disadvantage to humanity. Many people believe that introducing Robots in the workplace is

going to make humans seem invaluable in comparison. This would make companies replace

every worker with a robot that would do their job more efficiently without having to worry about

any mistakes.

There is a lot of data to support the human fear of being replaced by machinery: “One

study estimates that about 400,000 jobs were lost to automation in U.S. factories from

1990 to 2007. But the drive to replace humans with machinery is accelerating.” Says

Alana Samuels. Alana is an American journalist who attended Harvard university and was

nominated for the Gerald Loeb Award for Beat Reporting and the Gerald Loeb Award for

Feature Writing. The idea of substituting humans with robots is only getting more and

more stronger due to Covid-19 health regulations. More machines and less human contact
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may seem like the best way to avoid more illness, yet according to Alana this would lead

to a huge rate in unemployment.

Another dream that scientists are hoping will be a reality due to technology is

colonizing other planets, “We’ve been wreaking havoc on Earth for a long time and the

planet can only put up with mankind destructive nature for so long.” says Mr. Langridge

in his article. Debating that the only way humans could survive in the future is if

scientists managed to colonize Mars and other planets. Just like any of his ideas, this

whole concept is deeply refuted by humanitarians. According to them, climate change and

other environmental problems that humans caused needs to be solved and not left and

abandoned.

The most common misconception about technology is that the government is using

it to brainwash the population making them mindlessly obedient. Truth is, technology has

the power to educate you, make you more intellectually intelligent just like it has the

power to numb your brain. Although, it depends on how you use it and not on any

government. Propaganda and fake cites have been around for a very long time, but all you

have to do is verify any information you heard before believing first.

Technology has been affecting our lives in so many different ways, that it’s

becoming harder and harder to imagine how our lives would’ve been without it. There is

no denying that it is a double-edged sword, but at the same time humans wouldn’t be

where they are today without all what it gave them. Finally, regulating its use might be

the only chance we have of using it to our benefits without any harmful consequences.
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Buchanan, Robert Angus. "History of technology.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 18 Nov.

2020, https://www.britannica.com/technology/history-of-technology. Accessed on 30 March

2022.

Luo, Rio. “The Impact of technology change and growth on the skill premium in Western

Europe from 1300 to 1914.” Voxeu.org, 14 May 2017, https://voxeu.org/article/historical-impact-

technology-skill-premium. Accessed on 30 March 2022.

Vijayan, Jaikumar. “Internet Technology Flaws Raise Fears of DoS Attacks.” Computerworld,

26 April 2004, https://www.computerworld.com/article/2565406/internet-technology-flaws-raise-fears-

of-dos-attacks.html. Accessed on 30 March 2022.

Langridge, Max. “Life in the future: Tech that will change the way we live.” Pocket-lint,

21 July 2021, https://www.pocket-lint.com/gadgets/news/142027-tech-innovations-that-will-

shortly-change-the-world. Accessed on 30 March 2022.

Samuels, Alana. “Millions of Americans Have Lost Jobs in the Pandemic—And

Robots and AI Are Replacing Them Faster Than Ever.” Time.com, 6 August 2020,

https://time.com/5876604/machines-jobs-coronavirus/ . Accessed on 30 March 2022.