English Assignment
Impact of Technology on Human Lives
Technology has been a gift of Science to the Human beings and has made lives simpler, easier and has brought people close to each other. We have reached a situation where we can see and talk to people who are thousands of miles away from us, thanks to technology. We can now attend classes, learn about different domains and even work from home. But, there is a down side to everything. Technology does not always play a helping hand and it has it downsides that has affected the lives of people around the world. Would anyone want their child to play video games on an iPad during the classes or stream videos on YouTube on a laptop while at work? If the answer is no, we are already in some sort of trouble.
Globalization, which has been a child of modern day technology has forced people to work during odd hours. For example, people working in Information Technology industry in Asia for the clients based in USA or other American nations have to work in shifts which have uncomfortable working hours. People sleep in the morning and work at night to provide good services to the clients and earn handsome incentives but the impact of such work on the health cannot be ignored. A lot of people working during odd hours have had complaints regarding depression and sleeping disorders. The bank accounts show a positive image but the health reflects something else. Small delays at work can cause huge financial losses to the clients and therefore, the levels of stress are very high and people often find it difficult to deal with such stress levels.
The six facets of technology management are – technology evaluation, Product and process innovation, planning, implementation, training and change. In today’s rapidly changing environment it is important for various companies to examine the six facets of technology management and come out with a business model that helps the organization in the long run. Product and process innovation and technology evaluation form the basis of the model and act as the inputs for the planning facet that lays the foundation of what has to be done or what are the requirements. The implementation facet deals with how the planning has to be implemented. Training as per the project or technology requirements is another important facet. Change management comes into picture in a rapidly changing technological environment where the needs of the people change rapidly and the organizations have to change their processes in order to cater to the needs of the people across the world and sustain their businesses (Prakhya, par. 2).
One facet which has a considerable impact on societies, people, governments and the organizations is planning. The planning facet takes care of what needs to be done by the organization to achieve its goals (Roy, par. 1). For example, if we consider Facebook, the planning phase would include the evaluation of technologies and product and process integration. The planning facet deals with gathering the requirements and the process may involve primary and secondary research and interactions with people across the world. Facebook targeted the young adults, to begin with, as young adults are most prone to using social media. The habits of young adults and their lifestyles acted as the input data for the user interface of Facebook and the features that it offered.
The technologies change with time, as per the needs of the people, and the organizations need to keep a check on the same in order to sustain their businesses and to cater to the needs of the people. Facebook managed the planning facet really well and attracted millions of people across the world by continuously planning the technology implementations and product and process integrations. From simple text communications to video calls, games and other interactive features, Facebook planned and implemented the changes as per the changing technological environment across the world. Different people from different countries got attracted due a simple social media model which brought them together at economic prices.
But, was the impact was not just positive, the changes came with a lot of negative impacts on the society and its people. First and the most important one being addiction. Just like people get addicted to alcohol, tobacco and drugs, they also get addicted to social media. Young adults across the world, have found Facebook to be very addictive, spending hours every day on activities that affect their health and relationships with other people.
Talking to people on text or video calls on Facebook might be considered a great achievement that people have come closer to each other and can interact with each other at will without leaving their homes but this has actually affected relationships. People no longer want to meet each other in person and are satisfied with online interactions and therefore missing out on the emotions and feelings. People waste a lot of time doing things and getting involved in activities which do not add any value since a lot of useless data available around the world is now available to people. It has also been observed that people have found an easier way to abandon their relationships.
Use of social media at work by the industry professionals and during the classes by students has had a negative impact on their growth and development. Social media acts as a distraction from work and people then find it difficult to concentrate on their work. Students using Facebook and other social networking sites during classes has been one major setback where teachers who prefer teaching using the modern technologies like iPads and laptops have found it difficult to check what the students are using the technology for. A teacher thinking that the students are reading an important article on their iPads for the final examinations might find out that some students are busy talking to others on social media and are ignoring the coursework.
Is Facebook, as an organization, completely unaware of the harmful effects? I think everyone has the answer but that’s what we call the Planning Facet of technology management in the modern world. The organizations do their part of research in order to find what the people want and how they can make maximum utilization of modern day technology, irrespective of what effects it would have on the people. The purpose of the social media websites is to earn revenues and profits and they do it by getting money for every click, what we usually call Pay per Click. There is so much data available on the internet that it would be difficult for any person to determine what is important and what is not. The social media websites identify the requirements of the people and then devise methodologies using which people can be distracted from their routine work and activities and attracted towards social media.
The news articles these days, on social media, do not mention a clear headline but make it a suspense. The people who are just looking to reading the headlines are therefore forced to open the website link to understand what the theme of the article. This leads to two things, first one is that people waste their time and the second one, which is more important to the social media websites, is Business from Pay per Click. Individuals waste their time and organizations make money through those attractive display links which provide no useful information or value addition to the people. The fact that people getting distracted from their professional work also has an ethical aspect. No organization would want their employees to use social media at work because the employees get paid for working for their employers and not for chatting with others or for any sort of entertainment on social media. But, the social media websites like Facebook are also aware of such facts. That’s the reason you can easily find work related topics or webpages, so that people can still use social media.
Social media also makes one hesitant to interact with people since hiding yourself behind text is very easy. One might be afraid to talk to people, and ideally, should try to remove his fear by interacting in person but websites like Facebook make it easier for shy or under confident people to hide behind the texts and feel that they are actually interacting with others. This has a damaging effect on the personalities and attitudes of people. If your child doesn’t open-up to people, you would try to help him by putting him in situations where he has no other option but to meet people to remove that fear but websites like Facebook do otherwise, they provide a platform to hide the feelings and still make people feel that they have no issues interacting with others. Not to ignore the fact that, such interactions make people more lethargic, since they do not have to move out of their homes to meet others. All you need is a computer and an internet connection. For example, a guy may be attracted towards a girl but is too shy to talk to her, he might use Facebook to interact with her and may be really good at texting but where does it all go after texting if the guy does not have the confidence to talk to the girl in person. That is not a relationship but the guy might think that he has a relationship with that girl because he has been texting her. And when it all ends because of the inability of the guy to ask the girl out and meet her in person, the guy goes back to square one and ends up wasting the precious time of not one but two individuals.
The health hazards are too many and the Planning facet takes care of that as well. The well planned advertisements on the websites tell people about how they can deal with health problems including obesity or depression. They sell products which are a cure for the problems that have been created by social media. So, the picture becomes clearer, social media websites also provide cures or solutions to problems that came into the picture because of them. And that’s what we call, Business in the modern world. If there is a problem, there is a solution for it and that’s what advertisements are based on. You can find several advertisements on Facebook that would tell you about how you can lose weight in no time or how you can get rid of your depression, but do these products actually work? We all know the answer, so we can also say that the advertising business on Facebook or other social networking websites is not ethical.
Working on social media also has negative an impact on the eyes of people. When an individual uses a display screen for hours, the eyes need to concentrate on the screens for hours and get tired. Excessive use of computer screens or mobile phones affects the eyesight of the people, which a lot of people ignore while using the modern day technology (Marcus, par. 2).
It would be incorrect to say that the Planning facet only has negative effects on the people. When Facebook came up with the video chat feature, it made it easy for the people to see their loved ones and listen to their voice. Facebook brought a lot of useful information with it that could be used by people across the world. The webpages of several organizations across the world and the rapid spread of important information have been some of the aspects which have added value to the modern world. Interacting with friends and family has become easier and some people have found their friends whom they had not seen for years. Facebook has also helped several students by providing important information about the world events and simple education related webpages, communities and articles. People can now form associations and contribute to the growth of the society without actually meeting each other. Facebook has also helped the promotion of several non-profit organizations that work for causes like safety and security and women empowerment. It is due to technology, that people now have access to important information (McCoy, par. 5).
Therefore, it can be said that social networking sites and modern technology can help the society and its people, provided they act in ethical ways and attract people with the motive of value addition and not just for increasing their own revenues and profits. Technology can be our best friend and the worst enemy, depending on how we use it. The societies, governments and organizations across the world should therefore act ethically and for the betterment of people using the modern day technologies.
Works Cited
Prakhya, Hemanth. "The Six Facets Model." N.p., 2006. Web. 30 Jan. 2017
DeLoatch, Pamela. "The Four Negative Sides of Technology." N.p., 2015. Web. 30 Jan. 2017
Cook, Jia. "Digital Technology can be harmful to your health." N.p., 2016. Web. 30 Jan. 2017
McCoy, William. "Five Positive Effects of Technology." N.p., 2015. Web. 30 Jan. 2017
Marcus, M.L.. "Finding a happy medium: explaining the negative effects of electronic communication on social life at work." N.p., 1994. Web. 30 Jan. 2017
Roy, Joseph. "Importance of Planning." N.p., 2016. Web. 30 Jan. 2017
