Think about the days when smart phones, tablets, laptops, internet, social networking sites, games and applications, and other products of digital technology are not existing yet. Can you imagine the hassle of sending a snail mail to your loved ones living miles away from you just to keep in touch? Can you imagine the need to go to libraries and manually search for references such as books and journal articles whenever you do your research? Can you imagine not having a portable gadget for you to be able to listen to your favorite music and play games any time you want? Imagining all these situations, do you think you will still be able to survive your daily lives without the availability of digital technology, as well as its other applications? I think, not anymore.
Those days where technology are unavailable, physical activities is a vital part of daily lives. The people also were not as much luxurious unlike today with all those new and upgraded gadgets every now and then. However, they are more physically active and exercise was integrated in their everyday lives. The lifestyle then was contrary with the lifestyle today, with the new generation being brought up with the emerging technology, daily lives is a lot different. Exercise has been a luxury and leisure activity today, and not a necessity anymore. People have been more prone to becoming lazy and inactive with physical activities, as they can just lie down the whole day and still be able to function and do their work by the means of digital technology.
We have been dependent on digital technology over the past decades where technology is a boom. But are we on the right track being so much dependent of technology? Is it just normal to be amazed and rely on computer and machines regarding storing and acquiring knowledge and just harness artificial intelligence from them? Overutilization of technology and dependency on artificial intelligence can result to underutilization of human brain and might lose its maximum capacity to perform intellectual abilities in a prolonged period of time. There might also come a time that these computers and machines will overpower human intellect with their artificial intelligence.
In this research, we will be discussing the positive and negative impacts of digital technology in the contemporary society. In the current times, positive impacts of technology are always the focus of the people. However, most of the time, people only see what is convenient for them and not the bigger picture as to how technology is affecting the society. Moreover, for this research, we will include the different aspects of life in a global perspective such economy, business, and politics.
In the current time, people have been dependent on modern day technology. Digital and cellular technological advancements is one of the majorly used technology by the society. It made easy communication possible with the use of wireless media to connect people in the different parts of the world. With the widespread connection provided by the internet, long distance communication is pretty much accessible, somewhat reducing the longing for personal contact. Emails, online messengers, and mobile phones replaced handwritten messages and loses its personal touch because things are now a lot easier in just some pressing keyboard keys and clicking buttons.
Digital technology has also a big impact on business activity in a much positive note that negative ones. Business companies can implement business technology with the use of computers, servers, websites and personal digital product advertisements to develop their competitive advantages in the economic marketplace. Even small business companies can implement business technology in their planning process which would allow them to compete in the field with the larger business companies. Business owners can reduce business costs by automating back office functions such as document and data control, record keeping, accounting and the likes which will be easily and quickly generated and stored in hardware devices instead of hiring numbers of manpower to get the job done manually and take hours to finish the tasks. Business technology can also improve communication within the company members as well as among the company and consumers through applications and websites (Vitez).
Internet being a product of technology that contains a lot of information and connections in just a click away causes not only positive impacts such as effective medium for information dissemination, easier sources of researches and information and being accessible in most places, it also has its negative impacts in the society. Internet gave rise to many unethical practices such as hacking, spamming, phishing, and scamming. With the accessibility of internet being an open platform for expression, ideas, and a lot of things without much regulation, crime has been on the rise. People had the capacity to spread wrong information and people would immediately believe because most believe that everything they see on the internet is true.
In this day’s society, we can observe that a wide range of age bracket knows how to use technology, gadgets and internet access including even those youngsters like children of age 10 and below. The current generations, especially those of age averaging to 25 and below practically grew up with the emerging technology which makes them rely to the use of technology in their primary daily functions and routine. However, these technologies also have its way of ruining society because of its big impact on the current population. It dumbs down the society by allowing spoon-feeding of all information which lead to people depending on technology to access information instead of learning and knowing necessary information and skills by themselves such as solving mathematical equations, and conversing and writing papers properly and formally. Technology correct us, but then most of the time, people tend to forget and move on from the corrected information and will in turn would not learn from it because there will always be the technology in which people can reply on instantly. Moreover, most people don’t check the credibility and validity of the information, and just believe with whatever they are seeing that is provided by technology like the internet.
With the current generation, we cannot question the huge influence of internet and social media in mobilizing and shaping human behavior (Furedi). Social media has been a powerful medium in spreading social protests and propagandas such as LGBT rights campaigns, election campaign paraphernalia, notifications of event mobilizations for different protests around the world, support statements and posters representing the victims of refugee bombings in some parts of the world, BrExit campaigns and protests, and the likes. It can be easily observed that social media being a networking site that can connect people of all parts of the world possesses a potential factor that can be used to promote public participation, engagement and processes of expressing democracy of public life and freedom of expression. This is one of the main reason why technology in the form of internet and social media is imperative to most organizations to release information that would easily reach majority of the public. Internet and social media is ought to be a resource that can be used to utilize social and political movements as a way of communication to promote one’s cause.
According to the study of the US News and World Report, there are five ways in which technology in the form of new media changes politics. With millions of medium to transport and retrieve information such as TV channels, radio stations, websites and social media, spreading news these days has been more diffused and disordered.
In a political setting, mass media is much more expensive than social media and those advertisements found in the internet which makes politicians resorts to using social media and social networking sites in their political advertisements. One of the most common social media today is Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and the likes. All these have a huge network of users in which one single post can reach thousands to millions of people in just a short period of time. Studies show that features of this single social media application can cause significant impact in politics. First feature is that in social media, there are a lot of random topics and articles that can pop up in one’s news feed in which an individual can choose which one to read and which one to disregard. The White House communications director, Dan Pfeiffer, told the New Yorker magazine, “With the Internet, with YouTube, with TiVo, with cable TV, people are selective viewers now… People approach their news consumption the way they approach their iPod: You download the songs you like and listen to them when you want to listen to them.” Another feature is the availability to share posts and information to the public. Sharing is one way to distribute and spread news with just a single click in the online world. People can share any type of information, whether truth or fake news, videos, infographics, interviews, announcements and all sorts of information found on the internet. In the United States, it was former President Obama who first used social media to announce his presidential candidacy via web video and his presidential pick via text message. Another feature is the like and reaction buttons, which can somewhat give rough estimation of the reaction and opinions of people regarding issues or campaigning politician for an election. Even though it is not accurate and does not get a representative sample of a whole population, the results somehow resemble a poll, but a more cheaper and less accurate one. Another feature is to connect to people by creating groups and pages where announcements and details regarding mobilizations, demonstrations, meetings, and even State-of-the-Union watching events can be posted online, which can be used to virtually invite people to join the said activities. Last but not the least feature is the donation websites to perform online fundraising activities in which some politicians use to raise funds from little donations of many individuals (Cary).
In the recently concluded 2016 presidential elections, technology has played a huge role in changing the race for the presidency in just a short period of time. Social influence, especially in social media such as facebook and twitter, changes how candidates interact with their constituents and campaign their candidacy. Back in 2004, Bush and Kerry’s campaign for presidency didn’t use any social media platform. There was no direct communication from the candidates and their constituents, unlike now that they can be easily and directly accessible through facebook and twitter mentions. The down side, however, is that information and people’s opinions are uncontrolled, where supporters or haters can spread wrong information which can change the public’s view in an instant. Riding along the trends and viral news and activities in social media also give a huge impact in the candidate’s popularity and reach of constituents to campaign to. Every little action of one’s candidate can produce a meme that is a trending thing in the online world these days, which make people to easily remember the candidate. This can be both beneficial or not to the candidates, depending on the type of issues the public would associate to them. Traditionally, candidates based their statistics through polls and surveys conducted by selected organizations that monitors the election race. However, with the rise of data and analytics, candidates can now deeply understand the context behind those polls results to be able to work on the things that they need to improve and the places they need to reach and campaign more. With the availability of these kinds of information, campaigns will be more effective and efficient for the candidates. Lastly, candidates can be easily informed with their constituents’ issues that needs to be addressed. Candidates these days must keep up with technology, otherwise they will be labelled as outdated. Being always in connect with internet and technology allows each political candidate to reach a wider range of voters to connect with for a more effective campaign (Cutler).
Following the breakthrough of technological advancements, as previously stated, has great influence in the improved communication, raising awareness and spreading democracy in the world. It also plays an important role in the field of foreign affairs, in which the focus of the discussion will be the adverse effects of technological advancements such as digital security, and rise of inequality among progressive and less progressive countries when it comes to technological advancements. Modern day technology has brought significant changes in the field of foreign policy and diplomacy, which was stated by Hillary Clinton during her term as a Secretary of State that “Just as the internet has changed virtually every aspect of how people worldwide live, learn, consume and communicate, connection technologies are changing the strategic context for diplomacy in the 21st century.” Leaders of today’s society does not only mean taking a stand and being passionate, devoted and taking responsibility with regards to it. They also need to be celebrities or popular individuals to get to their position in the politics. Being a politician means completely understanding the role and importance of technology in proper disseminating public opinion to the masses, at the same time mitigating popularity to come up with unbiased decisions. The world needs leaders who does not only understand the complexities of technology, but also utilizes the advantages of technology in promoting global culture of human encounter and implementing programs and projects that addresses the concerns of all the people.
Works Cited
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Cutler, Zach. 4 Ways Technology Has Impacted Presidential Elections. 16 July 2015. 1 December 2016.
Furedi, Frank. “Aspen Institute Prague .” 2016. How The Internet and Social Media Are Changing Culture. 1 December 2016.
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