Many people will agree with me that Technology is revolutionary! Revolutionary because it takes over every aspect of human life. Before the advent of technology as we know it today, family and societal statuses were face to face activities. We know that science is a deviation from the norm. Science gave birth to technology. And presently technology determines almost everything in the world today.
There is a debate on the importance of technology and how it has affected human positively and negatively. If you were asked: how has technology affected you? What would your answer be? Does its positives outweighed its negatives? These are some of the questions the issue concerning impacts of technology is confronted with.
Before i explain my points, i shall be considering some factors responsible for this piece.
The word electracy was coined by Gregory Ulmer from two words which are: electrical and literacy. Electracy is the skills and facility necessary to exploit the potential of modern electronic media. source
To use any technology effectively, we need to understand how to operate it to achieve its essence or purpose. So these days, you must be 'electracy' to fit in the modern community.
There are many times i laugh at my mom because she doesn't feel comfortable using smart phone because they have no visible keypads. So for her to use a smart phone, she needs to be taught or guided. It is one thing to go to school and be literate, it is another thing to be 'electracy'. In fact, not all modern child is electracy.
This idea of electracy becomes a big deal that almost everybody is ready to learn one thing or the other or learn new things as much as possible. So these days, where there is a new phone or any technology in the market, everybody wants to use it. To do that, they must at least buy it, then sit in the corner of their houses operating it so that they wont 'embarrass' themselves in the public.
So this becomes the norm in the society that we always anticipate new technology to explore and feel 'advanced'. This way of thinking or doing things was regarded as technology determinism by Thorstein Veblen.
According to Veblen, technology in any society determines its nature. The major factor controlling culture in any given society is technology. This view maintains that human beings have little or no freewill to choose their means of communication.
The view claims that we simply embrace every technology imposed on us by the society or that which the society as settled for. To buttress this further, we embrace technology that the people at large approved as best whether we like the shape, aesthetic of it or not.
This determinism by state or the majority in turn determines how we live. It affects what we consider best or not. It forms how we review some functions of these products.
It is possible that you have different opinions to the view above but i will like to draw some instances to explain how technology shapes and determines how we live.
As kids in the early 1990's, we have different methods or ways of playing. We recites folklore riddles (Alo apamo), tell folktales, organized cultural dances, horse racing, counter soccer, police and thief, catcher, football with monkey post, ten ten with girl (with our hands), suwe (drawing of lines on the floor and jumping over them), names of a boy, places, animals, etc,. These were the things in vogue then.
They remind us of our cultures, heritage, how to be honest, hardworking, respectful, etc,. Most of them were created for the sole purpose of engaging the kids.
But now, those thing are already in extinction. Children of today hardly play or talk together on the filed in form of play. They are either in their rooms watching TV, playing games on their uncles phones or theirs. You see 5 year old girl asking her dad to get her phone because she wants to play games on the phone.
During those days, our games as kids were brick game, water game, water gun. Those were the norms. They joined us together and in some cases created malice (laughs)!
In this modern day marriage, you see two people living together as strangers but they man and wife. You are in the bedroom with your wife or husband, while the two of you should gist, communicate, laugh about things you are rather glued to your phones. You see a man laughing seriously to himself because of what he is reading on his phone and the wife will be like...who is my husband chatting with (vice versa). They already have a third party in their marriage - tablet phone.
So consciously or unconsciously, technology determines how we live. I have heard many people say: I cannot live without a phone!
My Point:
Technology no doubt is a 'good' thing. It has brought about immense societal development and even human development. It has also helped to discover some diseases, how to cure them and it has aided in the curing of these diseases.
Phone also has eased our means of communication. I could remember then that my mom would travel to village just to greet my grandma. But with phone, she reaches her anytime she wants. TV has also helped us to understand and know many things about other countries, cultures and also animals.
Internet has helped us immensely considering it is what i am using to communicate this my thought with you all. Without it, people on Steemit wont know that there is somebody called smyle from Lagos, Nigeria. So you can say to some extent, it has brought good things!
However, what about the other negatives? Many people have practiced what they see on TV or internet and in most cases they are bad things. It is hard these days drop remote in the room and go out. You know your children might see what they shouldn't see.
If you go to cafe here in Lagos and you see what young kids are browsing about on the internet, you will wonder if they could have that wide (negative) idea ordinarily?
We now have depend on technology that it affects marital life and even parenthood. If a kid asks her dad to teach her anything, she is quickly referred to a search engine. When your kid ask you to teach her about a delicacy, you easily recommend she uses a search engine to get her answer forgetting she needs that bond between you and her.
Modern era seems to usher in so many things that rationalize new things and make all old ideas archaic and ones we should easily discard. The trend in modernity is if you can't beat them, you join them. So you are left with no option other than to follow the trend or remain in the 'past'!
What do you think? Has technology played any negative role in your home? Has it played positive role? What is your take on the view that technology now determines everything we do?
Thanks for reading!
Its your boy @smyle the philosopher.