Humans Over Rely on Technology - Essay Example

Technology plays a significant role in peoples lives in our contemporary society. People have become accustomed to using technology in their everyday lives. However, there is a question of whether people over-rely on technology. Times have changed and so has technology advanced. In our contemporary society, there are a lot of technological products such as Smartphones and computers that have made it easier for human beings to communicate. One downside of technology products is that they have made human beings lazy. Technology has allowed human beings to connect with ease. Technology has made many everyday tasks easier. However, I believe that given that people have become physical lazy due to automation that is associated with technology, technology should be limited. According to Sherilynn Macale, technology has evolved in the 21st century to accommodate a more convenient lifestyle and meet every need that could need fulfilling. With the right technology in ones home, one might not need to leave his or her bed. The paper critically examines whether human beings in the contemporary society over-rely on technology.

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There is an ongoing debate if we as human beings have become over-reliant on technology. There have been claims that children nowadays do not even know how to use the dictionary because they can easily access information about a word they are interested in, straight from the internet. Looking around us, its not hard to see many people profoundly engrossed in the mobile phones as they walk along the streets. People have also become engrossed with their mobile phones to the extent that they drive their vehicles while checking their mobile phones and gadgets for new information. Studies have revealed that texting while driving is the newest cause of accidents in our contemporary society. Most people are so much absorbed with information technology devices that they cannot fathom living without those devices. Technology has become inseparable with lives of human beings in our contemporary society.

Sensory dynamism is a serious problem that stems from over-reliance on computer technology. Calming Technology Lab of Stanford University is studying about effects that gadgets, computer screens, and other devices have on peoples sensory stimulus. According to Neema Moraveji, the director of the Calming Technology Lab, technology can cloud peoples sensory judgment. Technology can make people to only see factual and textual information instead of an array of human emotions. Technology has made people less human beings less human given that it has made them to be incessantly engrossed in a rat race. Each year there is a new information technology gadget that is released. Ever since the advent of iPhone, there has been a release of many versions of iPhone. When people see newer versions of gadgets on sale, they go ahead and buy them. Newer versions of gadgets often have newer features that are appealing to prospective customers. Christopher Harris asserts that people tend to forget the whole bit about one laptop per child. It hasn't worked and probably will not work in most schools. By the time concerned administrators are done locking down the machines, they become nothing more than electric pencils that have horrible battery lives. A practical plan should be used in addressing the issue about students and technological gadgets. An appropriate plan would be an iPhone, or at least an iPod Touch, for every student (Brandon 2013).

There are many examples that reveal ways in which technology has made people lazy. First and foremost, there is a food delivery system where access to food has been made easier courtesy of information technology. What one has to do is to pick any food one wants from an online menu, pay for the food and wait for the food to be delivered. Grub Hub, Sherpas and Meal Bay are some of the companies where the food delivery system that uses information technology applies.

Secondly, online shopping is another example of a shopping system fuelled by information technology that has made people lazy. Online shopping websites such as Nordstrom.com and Toyros.com have made it convenient for people to buy items such as apparels, shoes, and toys. By people conducting their shopping online and not necessarily having to visit physical stores, people have been made lazy.

Thirdly, use of GPS when one wants to get information about direction has made people less physically active. Before the invention of GPS, people had to become physically active when asking and looking for directions. The advent of GPS has made it easier for people to move from point A to point B without having to be physically active, asking for directions. Given that technology has made some aspects of our lives to become effortless, we are constantly trying to find new ways in which human beings can fit more in an ever changing world without having to do physically absorbing activities.

I am concerned if we as human beings have become too attached to technology. The answer is yes. We us human beings have become too attached to technology. Never in the history of man has he ever been so attached to technology. Technology is a distraction to peoples attention. I have an iPhone in my hand that I use whenever I go somewhere. I use my iPhone for WeChat, Facebook, and Instagram as a virtual to communicate with my family members and friends. If I ever lose my iPhone, my life will be disoriented because my iPhone is one of the important gadgets that I use to communicate with my friends and listen to music. According to Linda Stone, continuous partial attention describes many peoples attention in the contemporary society. Partial attention is different from multi-tasking. Partial attention and multi-tasking are differentiated by an impulse that motivates them. When people multitask, they are often motivated by a desire to be more productive and efficient. In multi-tasking, we often do things that are automatic, that require very little cognitive processing. I think its a bad habit that we are too much attached to technology nowadays to the extent that we rely on it all the time.

Social interactions have been adversely affected because of people over-reliance on information technology devices. Nowadays, it is difficult for people to engage in a normal conversation without being distracted by technological devices. It is irritating to converse with a person when that person is checking his or her mobile phone for new information, or he or she is reading a text message or chatting. Definition of friendship has been made ambiguous by the fact that people who call each friends on social media are sometimes people who have never met each other. Overreliance on information technology has disoriented social interactions.

Information technology gadgets are associated with sleeping problems. Studies have revealed that glowing screens of gadgets impede people from having a peaceful sleep. Advancement in technology has brought with it features that have potential to ruin brains and imaginations of children. Technology has become advanced to the extent that it has potential to ruin cognitive functions of people who over-rely on it.

According to Chris Rowan, children rely on technology for the majority of their play. Over reliance of technology on play limits children's ability to be creative and imaginative. Over reliance on technology also limits children's ability to use their bodies in achieving optimal sensory and motor development. Bombarding sedentary bodies with chaotic sensory stimulation leads to delays in the attainment of child developmental milestones. Consequentially, this results in negative impacts on childrens basic foundation skills that go a long way in achieving literacy. Given that todays children have been hard-wired for high-speed, they enter school struggling with self-regulation and attention skills that are necessary for learning. Eventually, teachers who teach the children start to face significant behavior management problems. We need to control our mind not to get hooked on technology. Controlling human minds not to get hooked on technology is one of the biggest concerns for parents. For example, there is a parent who bought an IPad for her son three years ago. By the age of two years, the son had begun to use it. The parent knew the circumstances for using the iPad and as a result gave the son a limit on where to use and where not to use the iPad. The parent knew that is she does not set up a limit; the son would be addicted to the iPad. Truth be said, everyone loves technology, but a limit has to be set on how and where to use technological devices. According to Ann Kirschner, most people use their iPads from very early in the morning. Like many New York City apartment dwellers, Kirschner states that her brain is often half asleep until newspapers arrive. If she is ready for coffee before then, she goes ahead and fills that time by reading her e-mails or a magazine. Kirschner goes further to state that she often remains alerted for the satisfying "thunk" of The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal hit her door. Kirschner says that she loves technology and its benefits but she surely the days when things were being done in an old-fashioned manner.

Huffington post asserts that children are more susceptible to being addicted to technology. Children who are addicted to technology are more likely to develop and diabetes over the overuse of technology. People who are addicted to technology have been diagnosed with ADHD, unintelligible speech, coordination disorder, autism, depression, developmental delays, sensory processing, learning difficulties, disorder, anxiety, and sleep disorders. A closer look at critical factors associated with human development and the impact of technology on those factors would play a major role in understanding complexities of the issue of technology and health problems. There needs to be the development of apt strategies to reduce technology use so that effects of technology on human health can be addressed. Over-reliance on technology has to be stopped before it brings about severe debilitating effects on human health and development.

Few studies have been conducted in the recent past to establish the real effects that technology has on human health and development. According to, Cris Rowan, further study of the impact of technology on a developing child specifies that while vestibular, proprioceptive, tactile and attachment systems are under stimulated, the visual and auditory sensory systems are in "overload" courtesy of overreliance on technology. This sensory imbalance often creates huge problems in a persons overall neurological development, as the brain's anatomy and chemistry become permanently altered and impaired. Young children who are exposed to violence through TV and video games are in a high state of adrenalin and stress, based on the fact that their body does not know that what they are watching is not real. It hurts parents to see their children get addicted to technology. Parents are supposed to teach their children by the hand, not by technology. Children can be allowed to use technological devices but only when they need to, not all the time. Parents should set up a limit on how their children use technology.

According to Cris Rowan, it's important for parents, teachers, and therapists to come together to help the society "wake up" and see devastating effects that technology has on children's physical, psychological and behavioral health. Technology also has debilitating effects on the ability of children to learn and sustain personal and family relationships. While no one can argue that the benefits of advanced technology are of a large magnitude, connection to these devices may result in a disconnection from what society should v...