From electronic gadgets to cloud computing, the dawn of 21st century has seen the rapid advancement of technology. As a result, efficiency and automation of tasks have tremendously improved on the human lifestyle. However, it is notable that the witnessed rise in adoption of technology has also impacted the society negatively. The paper aims at exploring such negative effects.
Over the last decade, technology has continuously invaded on human privacy. Solove (2004) argues that the overdependence on the internet has remarkably exposed the information regarding the widening league of users to the prying eyes. This is made worse by the universal requirement for the user by the social sites as a sign-up process. Also, hackers are ever becoming sophisticated in the way they maliciously obtain private information from computer cloud. Therefore, phishing and computer virus invasion have remarkably narrowed the sense of online privacy to the users.
Regarding the frequent technology users, research conducted recently has revealed that they are highly prone to health complications. Obesity, for instance, has affected the majority of full-time video game players and social site users mainly because they spend lesser time being active or doing body exercises. In addition, prolonged lack of human contact triggers depression and a heightened level of stress, hence disorders related to attention and sleep (Ivory et al. 2007).
As another negative impact, environmental pollution through improper e-waste disposal is on the rise. Kondo et al. (2003) observers that the constantly advancing technology calls for a frequent upgrade of the existing electronics to accommodate newly introduced application software. But most government bodies, especially in the developing world, are yet to enact and implement e-dump regulatory policies. It should be noted that deadly chemicals from the improperly disposed waste can leach into the ground, destroying vegetation and affecting humans in the society (Johri, 2008). Also, pollution of the air is mainly contributed by the electronics manufacturing firms through unregulated toxic fume emissions.
Ultimately, the societal decay is mainly propelled by the technological advancements and the freedom it brings. For instance, the young population is exposed to sexual content at a younger age now than ever before. At extreme cases, child pornography is gradually gaining ground on the web (Jenkins , 2003). This is despite the concerted efforts by the major search engines --Google included--to introduce search content filters.
In conclusion, technology benefits can be fully enjoyed by the users only if the negative impacts are mitigated. As an initial step, it is recommendable that frequent video game players and computer users should become electronic-free for a number of days in a week.
Bibliography
Ivory, J. D.
Johri, R. (2008). E-waste: Implications, Regulations, and Management in India New Delhi
Kondo, R., & Watanabe, C. (2003) ‘The virtuous cycle between institutional elasticity, IT advancement and sustainable growth: can Japan
Solove, D. J. (2004). The digital person: Technology and Privacy in the Information Age. New York , New York
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