Technology is very powerful and nothing is as good as technology at improving life. Even though this is both good on paper and on the surface there are drawbacks to this. Technology can affect life both positively and negatively. New technology always changes our life very much and takes it to a new level. It is like the new way of thinking or doing the normal things differently, better and much more faster with less hassle and at a much affordable rate. Imagine life before Electricity, Life before the Automobile, life before the Telephone, life before the Computer, life before the iPhone. Before those technologies life was much less complex but it was at the same time very difficult to get many things done with just the twelve hours of visible light that we are given with each day.
As illustrated in the figure, Technology evolves, as as it evolves there more we find more convenient ways to get many things done in a day without too much hassle and this is one of the great benefits of having new technology.
To fully answer your question i shall state an answer with both pros and cons that are backed by evidence of existing facts of how new technology affects our life both positively and negatively.
New Technology Improves quality of life for human beings and as a side effect it makes it complex and have a negative effects on the environment.
PROS:
Without technology life would be very difficult and behind. Technology has brought many great things such as the ability to have light during night by using what we call Electricity. Let us use electricity as an example, Electricity alone has taken life on earth for human beings to another dimension. Imagine how bad your day can be and how your life gets stuck if there is no electricity just for four hours. Electricity is the most versatile energy source on the planet, even though we’ve only depended on it for about 100 years now. Its been only hundred years and look how improved life is as compared to 5 centuries ago. So imagine if we had been depended on it from the very start, Life would have been very very much better… People like Newton, Galelio, Maxwell, Gauss, Kepler and others would have developed far more better tools that make life better for all human beings. Imagine a 1000 years with electricity? Life would really be in a different dimension… I wish i could live to witness that.
Technologies such as computers, laptops, tablets and smartphones make it easy for human beings of today to exchange information, make faster decisions, interact socially, get entertainment, process financial transactions efficiently, buy online, manage homes and other existing technologies. This has made it much more efficient to travel because cheap air tickets can be purchased at a press of a button, an Uber cab can come collect you at your own time no more waiting. There is a cheap way of connecting with friends and family through social media and now you don’t have to remember people’s birthday because social media can always remind you.
Technology unlocks life that was unimaginable. Life that only existed in people’s dreams. As Einstein once put it imagination alone is too powerful. Technology is the reflection of people’s imagination on solving existing problems. These problems pushes human beings to transform their imagined ideas to solving these problems into technological innovations which as a result improve life.
CONS:
However, as much as electricity has brought too much convenience to the lives of human beings on earth it has also complicated it in a way. There is too much dependency on electricity and as a result there is overuse of electricity and since most of electricity is generated through natural gas. Too much use of natural gas has a net effect on the earth’s climate system. This is really bad because it means the next generation of human beings may not find the earth as green as it is today.
Also electricity has led to complexity of many tasks. Today the average human being does not want to do laundry with hands but wants a machine to do that, same goes for warming food with a microwave oven, exercising on a treadmill, using a dishwasher to wash dishes. Walking around the city on foot is no longer easy one has to obey robot signs and etc. These things were made to make life easy for human beings however, if you do not have them or afford them life can be difficult and very complex for you as a human being because things are longer done the manual way.
Lastly, new technologies such as the Smartphones, Laptops, Tablets have negative effects on the environment and on the balance of life though they are meant to make life great. If you can’t afford these technologies your life becomes very backward. Technology also give too many options to choose from which can sometimes make life of a person very difficult.
Also most of computer technologies of today have a bad footprint on the environment because they expire after some time creating hazardous electronic waste or e-waste. Also the net energy required to create these technologies and also to transport them across the world also increases and contributes to the total pollution of the earth.
In summary:
New technology brings new qualities to the lives of human beings but also has a side effect. What i have noticed is that usually human beings tolerate this side effect for as long as it takes until that current new technology becomes irrelevant and again new technology has to be invented. I once read something that once said, Make something that will make people believe they are thinking and they will love you forever, but if you make something that will make people think then they will hate you.
So in simple words, New technology can improve life both positively and negatively.