07 Jun Technology: Look up

Did you know that the founder of Nobel peace prize, Alfred Nobel is also called the “merchant of death” because he invented dynamite which today is misused as technology behind the manufacture of bombs.

This isn’t just one example but there are many instances that prove that technology indeed is a bane.

Nuclear technology is today being used more for manufacture of high-end bombs, the result of which we have all witnessed at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, rather than for generation of electricity.

The advances in gynaecology the technology is being misused for gender determination of the unborn child, also we find pure misuse of technology where mobile phones and computers are being use by small children for playing games and browsing inappropriate sites.

Man was supposed to be a social animal however today he is slowly becoming a puppet at the hands of technology & is beginning to interact more with virtual friends rather than his own near and dear family members.

In the words of Albert Einstein “we should fear the day when technology will surpass human interaction, the words would then have generations of idiots” and friends what Einstein said years ago is today becoming a harsh reality today.

I now quote a poem reiterating my point:

“I have 422 friends, yet I am lonely.

I talk to them every day, yet none of them really know me.

The problem I have sits in the spaces in between,

Looking into their eyes or at a name on a screen.

I took a step back and opened my eyes.

I looked around and then realised.

That this media we call social is anything but,

When we open our computers, its our doors that we shut

All this technology we have, it’s just an illusion

Of community, companion ship and a sense of inclusion

But when you step away from this device of delusion,

You awaken to see a world of confusion.

a world of self-interest, self-image and self-promotion.

Where we share all our best bits, but leave out the emotion.

We edit and exaggerate, we crave adulation,

We pretend we don’t notice the social isolation.

We put our words into order until our lives are glistening,

We don’t even know if anyone is listening.

We’re surounded by children who since they were born,

Have watched us living like robots, they think it is the norm,

It is not very likely you’ll become the world’s greatest dad,

If you can’t entertain a child without an Ipad,

Now the parks are so quiet, it gives me a chill,

To see no children and swings hanging still.

There is no church, no skipping and no steeple,

we’re just a generation of idiots, smartphones and dumb people.

So, look up from your phone, shut down that display,

Take in your surroundings an make the most of today.

Just one real connection is all it can take,

To show you the difference that being there can make.”

I end this debate by the famous quote of Steve Jobs, founder of Apple company,” technology is a useful servant but a dangerous and a dreadful master.”