It has been years that we have passed dot-com bubble and economy is now heavily depending on technological advances. Huge internet based mega companies are running the world and communications have never been easier. It has been said that technology has made our lives much comfortable and internet are running through every bits of our social life. The thing, however, is not all the time in our favors. Technology can hugely take toll on our lives, personalities and the very concept of human being. Nicholas Carr in his famous book, “Is google making us stupid?” says that internet is rewiring our brain and “the deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle” (2). In this weird wired world, we should sometimes stop and ask ourselves that whether we are controlling our technological related issues or the tail is wagging the dog.
For some people the notion of internet is synonymous with Google. Google powerful search engine is now our first webpage we visit every day. It has been said that google knows about us even more than our parents. Google functions and profitability are heavily depending on advertisements. What google does is sorting clients’ interests which are obtained by their search habits and data mine them by their robots. The collected data respectively will be sold to other companies. Our personal lifestyles can be easily deduced from this data. One may think that google is trustable. If we consider this hypothesis as true, which I doubt, how can we trust the third party not to utilize our personal information in devilish way? How can we trust big corporations which endeavor to alter our life style for the benefit of their interests? Google notoriously keep our data in their warehouse and we don’t know what comes next.
Another big problem is advertisement per se. According to the statistics done by Red Crown Marketing website, most Americans are exposed to around 40000 to 10000 advertisements each day and this number is growing. These torrents of targeted advertisements have found a new platform, called internet, to penetrate our lives more than before. The capitalist society is making spend happy society which is obsessed with consuming product nonstop. The surrounding is stuffed with myriads of ads and internet is no exception. The dangers of internet ads are more since they can sneak through our personal information and send it to their companies.
Communication is another important pillar of technology. We are just one click away from our friends and even strangers all over the world. The issue, however, is not clear cut. Internet provides false sense of communication. Consider those friends you have on Facebook, twitter or other social media website. These website are building relationship based on likes or followers. These mechanical interactions have nothing to do with those warm, cozy, face to face interactions we have with our physical friends. On the other hand, social media are changing the perception of comparison. Most of the time, what people posts are the best time of their lives, while we compare our failures with their victories and this will build up stress, frustration and other psychological issues.
In the end, technology is more than a two edged sword. It alters the way we think, consume and communicate with others. Technology is neither good nor bad. It depends on how we are involved with it and how we let this monster lead our daily lives. All we need is a great understanding of technology and understand its mechanism to slake our needs and spare the rest.
Book Cited
Carr, Nicholas. “Is google making us stupid?” www.uio.no. Accessed 25 of October 2016.
“How Many Ads Do You See in One Day?”redcrowdmarketing, 10 Sept. 2015, http://www.redcrowmarketing.com/2015/09/10/many-ads-see-one-day/