Editorial: Technology is responsible for our society’s greatest problems

Jaidyn Nelson, Activities Writer

With each coming year and the technological advancements that follow, it is easy to believe that technology has allowed our society to better understand other cultures, meet new people, improve communication, and has inevitably made our society more socially adept. However, research states that with some advances in technology, our society has become more stressed, distracted and has left people feeling increasingly isolated. Technology has completely redefined for our society what it means to be social. In addition, the high demand for technology is depleting the Earth of its natural resources and has caused an increase in pollution as a result of manufacturing. 

As the demand for new technology and advancements of current technologies grow, it depletes the Earth more of its natural resources. As our population increases daily, each of the couple billion consumers demand either a mobile phone or a computer in their homes or offices. This demand is good for producers, such as Apple, but in order to sustain the demand, we have to exploit Earth for materials such as aluminum. The

issue with the exploitation of materials such as these is that once they are extracted, they will never be returned because they require billions of years of maturation. With that in mind, we will reach a point where no natural resources will remain for future generations. That does not even take into consideration the amount of pollution which has resulted from the manufacturing of these new technologies. Additionally, rigorous farming activity will eventually deplete the Earth’s soil of nutrients. 

https://insights.dice.com/2019/09/24/apple-mac-pro-manufacture-austin/
Apple shifts production back to Austin, Texas after receiving tariff exemptions on ten items imported from China.

Not only does the influx of technological advancements deplete the Earth of its natural resources, but it has had a profound impact on just what it means to be social. Growing up in this era, a world lacking technology is somewhat of a foreign concept to young people who haven’t known anything else. People in our era have given little thought to what new social realities are created by society. Although it may appear that the use of social networking by technology has reconnected people and made people more mobile, social networking may be connected to an increase in cheating and divorce, loss of jobs, as well as an increase in narcissistic tendencies. It has been argued that social networking has given individuals the ability to communicate with others, leading to cheating on significant others, and thus divorce. People have also been fired from their jobs or put under pressure because these sites are used at work or something is posted online which undermines a candidate’s professional standing. Lastly, social networking has led to an increase in narcissistic tendencies, as social networking sites manifest people into having an excessive interest in one’s appearance and in one’s self.  

In conclusion, the technological developments we experience with each passing year and therefore the associated networking sites which have evolved from them have inevitably rewrote societal norms. It is said, without a doubt, that our society has developed a co-dependence on technology. We use technology and depend on it in our daily life and therefore our demand for it will continue to rise. However, technology has troubled our society. Advances in some technology suggest a more mentally unstable society in which people ironically feel more isolated, not to mention the way in which the manufacturing of these technologies has depleted, and will continue to deplete, Mother Nature of her resources. For these reasons, there should be a recall for the proper use of technology. In our modern society, the greatest issue we face revolves around determining the type of future we chose to pursue and creating technologies which will simplify the way in which we do things.