Technology: Are We Too Dependent on It? (Essay Sample)

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Technology: Are we too dependent on it?
Almost everybody agrees that technology makes life easier and more comfortable because it helps people to do tasks that could be impossible otherwise. Indeed, almost everyone would give a long list of the benefits of technology. However, as with any other thing human beings have created, technology has its shortcomings. Simply, the beauty of technology ends with a dark side.
Noticeably, technology does not necessarily earn people comfort with life; instead, it complicates life even more. In the modern times, for example, nearly every debate of the "incredible power of technology to enhance lives" highlights the cell phone (Cashman 57). Admittedly, the instant and efficient communication facilitated by the telephone has been a blessing. Originally, the telephone was an elementary device anybody could learn how to use it in moments of seconds. With the dynamism of technology, nowadays nearly everyone uses cell phones to converse on matters of particular consequence. In the recent past, however, the mobile phone devices have undergone sophistication to perform preposterous functions most of which have little relevance (Forth & Mason 19). Unlike in the elementary stage of telephones, today a person needs a forty-page manual to learn how to use a cellphone. Currently, technology is pushing us towards beliefs in the sense that today it is nearly impossible to buy a phone that only receives calls and sends messages and escape being labelled as a traditional refuge from the dark ages. Similarly, nowadays it is not strange to see millions of people driving or walking about while conversing on cell phones, usually on issues of no pertinence whatsoever. Imaginably, if a different civilization were to view our phone lines, its residents will believe that nearly everyone on the planet was mad, and, in fact, that would not be any far from wrong. In a reasonable or sane world, would almost everyone possess sophisticated, multifunction and complex gadgets that facilitate trivial chatter- and use in a manner that is unsafe and socially disgusting?
Besides the cell phone, the computer is another example revealing how technology continues to complicate life. Expectedly, nearly everyone accepts that computers are instrumental in enabling people to process data, share information and other tasks with ease and speed, a situation that would be have been impossible as recently as a generation ago. The advancement of computer technology is so rapid that new applications are invented than anybody can keep pace- and that harbors a problem. Surprisingly, even the experts have a handful understanding of the computer technologies(just consult an expert when a computer malfunctions, and wait for the surprise).While most users have the mastery of most of the elementary functions, most of the computer owners have a difficult in understanding and making use of inbuilt functions of computer programs. Admittedly, some studies agree that young people who have grown in the age of computers have an intuitive knowledge of how to use the machines. However, substantial anecdotal evidence reveals that people only learn fractions of computer functions, which are amusing, and entertaining (Bano, Bukhari, Niazi & Hussain 223). In fact, most of the users lack the patience and desire that is required for engaging in a complex learning process of utilitarian programs. Furthermore, computers culture a bad habit in people by creating mechanical assistance and denying users a chance to use their brains in performing most of the daily tasks. Essentially, it is possible to believe that the invention of the calculator explains the inability of many individuals to work out simple math. Besides, it is similarly possible to prove that computers have created a generation of people who know nothing about the logic of language and are unable to spell because of the mechanical assistance of the electronic spell-checker (that is, and perhaps will always remain imperfect).
While technology has had its downside in other areas, it has had positive effects and nearly zero negative impacts in entertainment. Agreeably, it is not possible to blame technology, for example when television networks air mediocre content (Jianhong & Mengzi 165). Similarly, if the music that individuals play and listen to on their gadgets including mobile phones is trash, nobody can rightfully blame the devices or technology in general. Because of technology, people have a variety of entertainments to choose from, and if they decide to spend, more time in entertaining themselves, that is not a technological evil. While people can be annoyed with the intrusion, excessive marketing in the entertainment media, that is, by all means not the problem of technology.
Besides the advantages of the technology that everyone thinks cannot do without, the downside of technology entails more what is detrimental to a human being than what is wrong with his creations. Because people believe that they will always be masters of machines, they continue to complicat...