The digital universe affects us all, be it personal or professional. New technologies and their applications have evolved at lightning speed. They have made it possible to advance in fields as necessary as education, science or medicine. And they have come into our lives to solve many problems, but also to create others. Let’s see what are these advantages and disadvantages of the technological age.
Advantages of Technology
We have compiled a list of the most important benefits that the digital sphere brings, such as improved Communication and access to information. In general, we can speak of the fact that people’s lifestyles have been improved. We are going to know those advantages:
- Out of distances: Technologies reach anywhere on the planet. There are no longer any distances that are worth it, especially from the informational point of view, thanks to the immediacy that the historical development of the Internet has meant in the search for information.
- Improve efficiency: Industrial productivity progresses, and there is greater use of resources.
- Facilitates the exchange of information and communications
- Easy access to information: Information processes are automated and accelerated, thanks to innovative technologies such as broadband Internet or applications with free access information generated by users of social networks, such as YouTube, one of the most popular Google services.
- The amount of data circulating on the web is easily accessible for users looking for entertainment and analysts or researchers. Mobile devices facilitate access to the network.
- Facilitates the use of programs and software systems freely. So you can choose free or private software.
- Community collaboration
- The immediacy and greater effectiveness in response
- Advances in science and medicine. Technological advances have made it possible to provide solutions in fields as important as health, science or education.
Technological advances nowadays overwhelm us because of the speed with which they are produced; they are essential to make our lives easier, work more productive, and improve the quality of life wherever technology arrives.
Let’s take a look at the advances in the world of engineering and industry, and we go, for example, to the year 1903. We discover that it is at this time that an aeroplane with stable flight is achieved for the first time, yes only 120 years ago and From there, advances have been made to allow thousands of daily flights between all the countries of the world. In the transport industry, innovation is daily; you only need to visit the page of any supplier in the automotive sector or the railway industry,
For example, to see the variety of solutions that exist today to solve similar problems, If we visit this page dedicated to protection against train impacts, we will see different train buffers, which no longer have anything to do with those that were installed 100 years ago in the US. At that time, the railroad industry was at its peak.
- Help at the beginning of self-study
- New career opportunities. With the digital age, new job profiles have been created.
- Cost savings. This means that, through technologies, processes and ways of carrying out tasks are improved. Machines can give more significant and better results than humans, which translates into cost savings.
- Changes in the way we travel and move. New technologies make travel easier for us, especially when we talk about prolonged distances. Both on a personal and business level it is an advantage that today transport is so accessible and easy.
Disadvantages of Technology
But not all are joys in the world of technology. Some aspects have to be analyzed due to the negative impact they have.
- Elimination of jobs: More and more machines and robots have been replacing man’s hands with the negative consequences that this entails. As technology advances, human work is undervalued.
- Dependence on technological devices: This misuse and excessive use of technology lead to significant health problems such as addiction, depression, social isolation, anxiety, hearing damage or eye disease.
- Less human interaction: With the arrival of search engines like Google or WhatsApp, interpersonal Communication is being lost. We hardly ask anything from the one next to us.
- Social isolation: More and more people spend more time hooked on mobile devices: game consoles, social networks, surfing the Internet… Communication and the way people interact is declining by leaps and bounds.
- Social inequalities: Marginalization of those communities that cannot access new technologies.
- Excessive and uncontrolled consumption: That immediacy, just one click away from any product or service, sometimes leads to excessive consumerism.
- Promotes a sedentary lifestyle with the health problems that it entails.
- Creativity is reduced: This dependence on digital devices means that we do not work with our heads so much. An example of this is the use of the calculator; no one does mathematical calculations to solve a simple operation but uses this tool.
As we can see, the advancement of new technologies has advantages and disadvantages. The improper use of them can lead to significant health problems, but it is also true that there are great benefits if used correctly, in favour of scientific growth.