Technology: Boon or Bane?

It’s already fifteen years since the advent of the 21st century has started. New inventions had been developed. Amazing breakthroughs were done. Cure for diseases incurable before, is now made possible through the continuous research done in the field of medicine and technology. Reaching for the stars has never been easier through the inventions in technology. The things impossible from happening in the past, is now possible with the development of science and technology. The world has greatly changed.

Humans are continuously trying to reach new heights. This is very observable in the tall skyscrapers most highly urbanized cities have. We all know from our science class that as you go high up in the atmosphere, pressure also increases and there is less concentration of oxygen atoms in the higher portions of the atmosphere. But this paper isn’t about the changes in the atmosphere, but is rather how technology works on us people.

Take for example the 9/11 tragedy in the United States. You can completely see there how technology affects the lives the people. The World Trade Center is obviously a skyscraper, which is product of technology. On the contrary, the plane that crashed the building and lead to the large number of dead and injured people is also a product of technology. So what’s their difference then?

Nowadays, technology can generally be seen as a boon rather as a bane. From the traditional letter-sending practice in the old days was then later replaced by the bulky telephones invented by Sir Alexander Graham Bell. Well, it did make communication faster and easier, but the telephones those days were as heavy as unabridged English dictionaries. In simpler terms, it’s not handy and is really bulky.

With the further developments in science and technology, those bulky telephones were then reduced to smaller and a bit handy cellular phones. Handy in the sense that you can hold them in the palm of your hand but still, they’re quite heavy. Now in the 21st century, those massive cellular phones were later enhanced to the touchscreen genre, with almost all of the phones nowadays are of this kind. Smartphones also start to rule the technology world, and is almost facing out the typical cellular phone – again, a product of technology innovation.

It was really a good thing that our ancestors was able to discover fire as their primary source of heat and light during the night, for if they failed to do so, the world would be today of great darkness. Still, one problem was faced by our ancestors back then: how to keep the fire running for a long period of time. Back then, there were no higher forms of technology, so they just really relied on the resources from their surroundings. And what have they made? A lamp. Later on, they also learned how to extract oil and combined the lamp and the oil in one container and discovered that the fire produced stayed a longer. The lamp, my dear friends, is obviously a product of curiosity, innovation and critical thinking, therefore making it a product of technology. As time passed by, our ancestors then figured out that energy can be harnessed form natural resources, thus producing what we call now as electricity – the energy that lights our fluorescent and light bulbs at home and most importantly, it ‘refuels’ our gadgets.

Tuberculosis back then was a very scary disease. Why? Because there was no cure for that said disease. But because of the continuous research done by our pharmacists and scientists in the laboratory, a cure has now been formulated.

Travelling from one place to another, let’s say from Tacloban to Manila, would take weeks back then and it cost too high just to get there. But now, due to the innovations on our transportation, getting there would just range from 24hrs to 3hrs.

But technology as we know it is not all good. Like a person, it also has a bad side. Too much use of electricity will not only increase your bill but will also cause fire, which will eventually burn your house down.

Cellular phones are also used in drug related cases, as their form of ‘communication’ with their ‘clients.’ Not only that but bomb explosion
related cases already reveled that cellular phones were the ones used in exploding these bombs. These phones are also the main source of text scams, which fooled many innocent people.

Pornographic materials are just being shared online like pamphlets given at a department store. There is lesser and lesser privacy because of the innovations in technology. Hacking other person’s accounts is also becoming a trend nowadays. Even sharing your personal information on the web can cause you your life.

Cars are getting fancier and fancier each year. Yet due to drivers who just recklessly drive in the streets, these billion dollar cars can mean death to those people who will be injured by this vehicle. Cars are also used as pursuit vehicles by culprits at large.

Going back to the 9/11 example a while ago, the plane that crashed it was obviously high-jacked, making the plane an instrument of mass destruction of that moment in time. The plane is beneficial to mankind for when used properly; it helps transport people from one place to another, without experiencing the traffic experienced on land, usually on great distances. But when used the other way around, it can cause great damage, especially warplanes or planes that contain some deadly weapons. It can even generate war between nations.

So, what’s your view on this issue? Is it a boon or a bane? Well, it just depends on the way the person uses it. Technology has no life for we know it, therefore are not capable of moving or thinking or basically doing any actions of human likeness. Whatever technology does to us is simply just the effect of our actions applied to that particular piece of technology.

The next time you use any kind of technology, think twice. It could cost you your future.