Home > Social Sciences Group > Discussion Board

How has increasing dependence on technology leads to disaster for human brings and human relationships?

This is a complicated question, and I think you'll get a variety of opinions.  I'm not sure what kind of technology you are speaking of.  An interesting definition of technology is "anything that was invented after you were born."  Things that existed at the time of our birth tend to be just "things" --- eg., the refrigerator is probably the most useful piece of technology in our homes, but we probably never consider it technology.

I think that a lot of recent technology has tended to isolate us from each other, or reduce our communication to trivialities --- and many of them have isolated us from ourselves.  Many people seem unable to spend time by/with themselves; the first thing they do is go for the cell phone or facebook or tweeter.  When they're not doing that, they're on their ipod/zune/whatever listening to music.  I have to wonder if all this is doing us any good.  I know that many people argue that this brings us closer "together," but some of it is so trivial that I am afraid that it is making us more shallow rather than helping us grow in relationships.

I confess to uncertainty.  I hardly think it's a "disaster" --- but I do think it's something that bears watching ....

I believe technology has brought high prosperity level to the people and also improved the ability of people to relate with others More effectively. Improvement in relationship - that is improvement in both quantity and quality of relationships - is mainly due to improved and economical means of transport and communication. However in line with tone of this question, I will limit my response to describing negative effect of technology. The major ones of these are described below.

1. By making available of so many enticing materialistic goods and services, the technology tends to make people more materialistic. In the rush for acquiring more of these materialistic pleasures, people tend to neglect to enjoy simple thing like peace and friendship. Perhaps in the final analysis these are more important for human happiness than the materialistic goods provided by technology.
2. In their their rush to acquire more and more materialistic goods, people have become more and more stressed. This has the direct and immediate effect of making life less enjoyable and more painful. At the same time it has indirect effect on health of individuals in form of disease like diabetes and hypertension. These tensions of individuals also lead to development of many problems in society such as increased crime rates and divorce rates.
3. Environmental pollution which has immediate effect on quality of life of people. At the same time it has long term implications threatening very existence of human life in major parts of the earth.
4. Effect of misuse of technology by developing and using weapons of mass destruction.

I disagree with the premise that increasing dependence on technology has led to disaster for us and our relationships with others.  The previous two posters' points are well-taken, but on the whole I believe that technology has in fact helped us.

In terms of its effects on human beings, technology seems positive.  Just as one example, my oldest daughter contracted sepsis during the birth process.  She was on an antibiotic IV drip for a week.  If she had been born before antibiotics, I would not have her.  There are any number of other examples of this sort that one can imagine.

In terms of our relationships, I'd argue that technology has also given us the ability to maintain better relationships than we were able to say 20 years ago.  I am able to stay in touch with my family better thru email than I could in the '80s.  Facebook allows me to keep up with friends ranging from people I last saw when I was 10 to students of mine who graduated from HS last year and have gone off to college.

I believe we always tend to think that the sky is falling, but I believe that our quality of life is improving.