Last Updated on: 26th July 2023, 06:01 am

For the last two decades, technology has been a part of our daily lives. From child grooming to adult career building; education, medical field, transportation, communication, socially and culturally, you will see the drastic impacts of technology in every part of life.

Today, we can communicate with our dear ones miles away, and traveling from country to country, becomes a matter of hours. Similarly, in the field of education, technology provides enormous ways for learning. Students can search for their problems and can get expert opinions easily. They can also know the unknown.

Likewise, in past, when there was a lack of knowledge and timely treatment, a minor health problem could cost a life. Today, everything is just a tip away. One can search for their problem and can follow the prescription given. Moreover, the impact on people socially and culturally can be seen more drastically today. One can have tons of information about different people: their culture and social life.

“Excess of everything is bad”.

Although social media and mobile phones opened a sea of knowledge they are also the cause of critical health issues. Excess use can result in reduced eyesight and focus issues. Moreover, students nowadays depend more on technology rather than their own knowledge which results in decreasing their critical thinking. Today, the Young generation has lacked boldness because they rely more on social media communication rather than face-to-face interaction.

Once asked by someone, “Does the internet make you smarter”? My reply was yes, but there are both positive and negative consequences of the internet/technology regards child development, education, medical, social, and cultural point of view. Down there we will explain one of their pros and cons.

Effect of Technology on Child Development:

Technology becomes an integral part of daily life. It helps in children’s development but also has its negative impacts. According to the report from Common Sense Media, about 42% of children have tablets. Today, you will hardly see a child without a smartphone in their hands. Technology enhances child learning capabilities. It sharpens their ideas and makes them creative. It gives children enormous learning opportunities. Even before their admission to school, they know alphabet, numbers, colors, and other fundamental knowledge.

The Biggest Threat

A child’s mind is like a vacant page where you can write anything. With the use of smartphones, they lost contact with their parents and relatives. All-day long, they engage in YouTube videos and cartoons. The same is the case with the young generation, they get lazy and lost social contact.

Besides, they also have many problems. They lost social contact with their parents and relatives. Relying more on social media, children lost the respect of their elders. They spent most of their time using a phone and have no physical activities. Moreover, the amount of sleep they are in at that age decreases which results in decreasing mental health. Although, they have positive effects but never turn aside from the negative ones. On one side if it helps in grooming, on the other it destroys their health, physical and social life.

Positive impacts of technology

 

  • Make them creative
  • Helps them in problem-solving
  • Increase opportunity of learning
  • Gives them fundamental knowledge before going to school
  • Sharpens their ideas

 

Negative impacts of technology

 

  • Loss social interaction
  • No physical activities
  • Sleep disorder

 

Impact of Technology on Education:

Students of the modern world are more informative even from their teachers. The education system has completely taken a shift from the conventional way of teaching. Today, higher education provides students with online degrees. Many institutes offer online subjects and even other schools operated entirely online with no face-to-face interaction of teachers and students. Students can even complete their courses online while setting in their comfort zone without attending school. Students can even solve their own problems online without asking their teachers.

In addition, books are usually decades old while technology can give them recent research and discoveries. With positive, there also come negative effects of technology. There are no or fewer students and teacher interactions where research says that interactive teaching is the best way to learn. The information on the internet can be wrong because it is copied from other sources without being checked. The Internet can create enough opportunities for cheating and distraction. There is no physical involvement of a student. Similarly, “If computers take over many of our tasks what will humans do? Similarly, if students are relying more on computers, laptops, and the internet what will they personally do?

Positive impacts of technology on education

 

  • Students become excited to learn
  • Instantly solving problems
  • It provides a busy schedule
  • Free to work at home
  • Give students new skills for later use
  • Promoting ‘green revolution’, decrease down paper and photocopying cost

 

Negative impacts of technology on education

 

  • Student’s critical thinking ability decreases
  • Time-consuming to search for a simple topic
  • Excess use can result in health issues
  • Some students can’t afford such a modern system

 

Impact of technology on health:

Technology has phenomenally improved our healthcare system. We can use it to improve our diets and can check digitally online doctor consultations and can follow their prescription for normal problems. It also improved the relationship between doctors to patients and gives fast medical records directly to your phone. Also, there is a different app available that can track your health daily. The introduction of EHR has brought the revolution. Rather than writing, nurses and technicians can now enter the data digitally. Moreover, those digital records are saved on your phone and can be checked anywhere.

Besides positive effects, there also come negative. Let us take the example of cell phones. They are a blessing and a curse. People are now more obsessive and remain in touch with their phones rather than people. Long using a phone can cause eye diseases; short-sightedness and lower concentration. Similarly, technology-addicted people result in improper rest and are the cause of sleeping disorders. Today’s young generation sacrifice their sleep to stay in touch with their friends on social media. Regarding health information on the internet, there is a lot of wrong information because people focus on quantity, not quality. Lastly, extensive use can cause back and neck pain and result in stress problems.

Positive impacts of technology on health

 

  • Improved public health
  • Lower healthcare cost
  • Greater patient care
  • Fast medical results
  • Healthcare applications that give daily health report
  • Can go to the depth of disease by online research

 

Negative impacts of technology on health

 

  • Less time to sleep
  • Decrease down physical activities
  • People become lazy
  • Focus and concentration problems

 

Impacts of technology on society:

Over the past few decades, technology has brought a revolution in computing and communication. Their dramatic increase has lowered the cost of communication and improved competition. Technology has opened many ways to earn money rather than setting ideal. It decreased the distances and one can sell their products around the globe. Similarly, one can do business with two or more companies at a time from home. This reduces job stress and increased flexibility. With the help of technology, people are now more skillful and can work in a dynamic environment rather than only a degree holders.

An Oxford study in 2013, suggested that about 47% of jobs would be in danger and will shift to automation in the near future. In 1900, agricultural jobs of about 40% of the workforce are now decreased to 10%. Machinery took its place and increases productivity. Similarly, social media has increased interaction but also increased cyber-bullying. Social media is the home to the majority of online bullying and makes people feel insecure, isolated, and jealous by comparing their lives to those of celebrities and other elite people. Moreover, the internet also becomes the cause of social distance mainly from a political point of view. People manipulate others and impose their agendas for their profit.

Positive impacts of technology on society

 

  • Transportation and communication
  • Improved businesses
  • Provides a platform to share your business idea with the world
  • People become skillful
  • Increase in income generation

 

Negative impacts of technology on society

 

  • Decrease down manpower
  • Threat to your privacy and security
  • Increases cyber-bulling

 

Impact of technology on culture:

Technology has also a pretty much strong impact on culture worldwide. Through the use of social media and mobile phones, people easily get aware of the culture and norms of other people around the globe. Similarly, such actions also bring innovation in their own lifestyle regarding culture. It would not be wrong that technology is diversifying people culturally. One can show their culture to the people and promote it worldwide. Also with modern technology, people left the traditional ways of living and doing other cultural activities that result in urbanization.

However, the new generation which is laterally the generation of technology knows nothing about their culture and norms. They follow those that appeal to them. Moreover, traditional life has been destroyed by these electronic gadgets. In past, the aged were the role models and were the sea of knowledge, but today they have lost such respect in society. In addition, society is known for its culture and traditions, which are no more in such modern societies. They are a mixture of different cultures, norms, and traditions and lost their uniqueness.

Positive impacts of technology on culture

 

  • Knowledge about different cultures
  • Brings innovation in culture
  • Know about the living style of different people
  • Access to people of different culture

 

Negative impacts of technology on culture

 

  • Lost traditional ways of culture
  • People leave there and start following other’s culture
  • Lost cultural uniqueness

 

Final Thoughts

To summarize, technology has taken such a stronghold that can’t be replaced. It has both positive and negative impacts but more holistically, it has many positive ones in our daily lives. The negative are those that we by-self made it. As we all know, “excess of everything is bad”. So, that’s not the problem with technology, the problem is we. We are using it in wrong or in an unfruitful way. If it is used in a profitable way then there is no drawback of technology. It has made our lives much easy and more convenient than if we look at the past there were huge problems which we don’t see today. That’s up to us how we shape our daily routines and how we make useful use of modern and electronic gadgets.