Technology and All That Comes With It

I’ve been spending the summer with my great aunts and uncles, who are all rather mature in years, and it’s gotten me to thinking about how some of the older generations feel about technology. This post is not at all inspired by their attitudes, but I’ve been thinking about it because of them.

I can sometimes see the older generations distrust of technology. They think the way they’ve always known is tried and true, so they don’t see a need for all the fancy technology. That, or they have either been duped by a scam (made easier by technology) or they see how people can misuse it.

I completely agree that the internet holds a whole bunch of junk on it and so many people use the anonymity as an excuse to be rude. Our level of privacy is shrinking every day because of it. People can be completely ruined by the stupid stuff they post on the internet. Hackers and scammers can reach your personal information.

If you just dwell on the bad, you will never be able to see the good.

With the internet, I can look up information I need to know, the second I need to know it. Information is free flowing and always there. Without the internet and technology, I couldn’t have this blog or post about it on social media. I couldn’t connect as easily to friends that I’ve moved away from. I wouldn’t have devices that could keep up with the tasks I want them to complete, if not for the ever changing and improving technology. I wouldn’t be able to see my bank balance at any moment I wanted to without my smartphone and I would have always had to wait for my bank statement to come in the mail. I can take pictures and then immediately put them into my computer to edit, which means I don’t have to send off film to get it processed or have a darkroom of my own (by the way, I would totally love to have my own darkroom someday, but that’s beside the point).

Those are just a brief few of the positives of technology, especially the internet. Technology opens up a whole new world and to hate it because you don’t understand it, isn’t a good enough reason.

Pointing out all the bad that came from technology isn’t viable either because anything humans touch can be used for bad. We are all human and can have the propensity to do terrible things, but technology didn’t foster that in us. If you want to argue that technology is evil, then you should take a look at the world before it came about. There were still wars, massacres, stealing of information and livelihood, rampant racism, and the list can go on and on…

I choose to see technology as a positive. I definitely won’t ever be naïve to think that people can do and use it for stupid things, but it still can be used for so much good.