Can you remember your life twenty years ago? From your present perspective, life must have been unbearable without cutting-edge technology, such as smartphones, Skype, Google Search, Google Maps, YouTube, or (engaging in superfluous rants on) Twitter. Thank God those days are past us, and we can now enjoy life fully by benefitting from the blessings of smart banking and Call of Duty!
Advancements in technology facilitated our evolution!
Humankind has always strived to reach for the stars and beyond. In improving our lives, we have relied on our imagination and ingenuity to bring our dreams just a little bit closer. We set an objective, try, and sweat, but never give up. Ultimately, education, science, and technology enabled us to accomplish our goals: design a better life for our children and a world without borders.
Undoubtedly, technology has contributed immensely to the progress of our existence on many levels. But is there more to the story? Join us on this fascinating journey to discover the actual uses of technological breakthroughs and how they can derail from their original purpose in our hands!
Can technological advancements be a mixed bag?
We must also know about the drawbacks of technological advancements, more precisely, how the masses tend to misapply them. Technology is a double-edged sword, from here the question arises, is technology making us smarter or dumber?
For instance, it can make us dull by creating an artificial bubble where all our problems can get an easy fix. As a result, our cognitive abilities might retrograde. Besides, technological advancements can give birth to social isolation, virtual bullying, online fraud, identity theft, and other psychological, economic, and social ills only humans can be capable of.
How have technical achievements improved education?
The application of scientific knowledge shaped education and schooling unimaginably. Nowadays, technical breakthroughs are available for students and professors worldwide.
According to a recent survey published by Cambridge International, about 48 percent of students use a computer in the classroom. Smartphones (about 42 percent), interactive whiteboards (33 percent), and tablets (20 percent) are also highly accessible devices for learning purposes.
Smartphones declared ‘persona non grata’ in classrooms.
Undeniably, mobile phones mean the world to most teenagers (but not exclusively to them.) They consider smartphones essential for their survival. How else can they keep up with the latest trends or check celebrity posts and tweets? Unfortunately, their school performance reflected their cell phone addiction.
For this reason, cell phones have been blocklisted in US K-12 schools because they proved distracting. As a result, students test scores increased by about 6,4 percent.
Interestingly, many students prefer doing their homework on their smartphones to desktop computers or traditional notebooks. Thus, user-friendly apps are available to assist with their tasks, such as Memrise, PhotoMeth, or myHomework.
What is gamification in the classroom?
Technology can give obsolete knowledge acquisition an electrifying spin. A new trend called gamification has popped up in schools. The concept covers applying gaming principles and interactivity in the classroom, and children love it! Therefore, education vs. skills development turned into a fun and engaging experience.
For instance, one of the most interactive ones is Socrative, where pupils must correctly answer questions to race their spaceships with their classmates. Then, Classcraft invites children to become magicians, warriors, or healers in a gorgeously choreographed fantasy game. They can gain points based on classroom behavior, performance, and test scores.
Minecraft Education Edition, Breakout EDU, and Goose Chase are other outstanding apps that inspire students to keep learning in their free time too. How awesome is that?
For many, technology is reduced to their smartphone’s perks.
Speaking on smartphones, they embody the digital world and technological advancements you can fit in your pocket. Did you know that about 85 percent of Americans use smartphones in 2022? Besides, 47 percent of the total Internet traffic originated from cell phones.
Are smartphones genuine help or the devil in disguise?
This devilish invention can bring out the best and worst in us. It can teach us new things, can play music, remind us of important events, take pictures, and enable us to talk to distant friends. Plus, it’s excellent for online banking, reading a book, and learning a brand-new language. Virtually, you can’t name all its advantages and features since they’re updated daily.
Nevertheless, did you know that your device collects data about you? A smartphone and installed apps (without your knowledge and consent) can track your steps, monitor your personal conversations, and recommend products and services based on the data compiled on you.
A smart device can turn you into a veggie suffering from ADHD.
There’s a much darker side to mobile phones. Everyone knows at least one person close to them who formed a genuine addiction to their device. But are we that different? Keeping our eyes peeled at the screen is a small price we pay for being informed or hip and trendy.
New York Times reported that adolescents and grown-ups check their devices about 150 times daily or once every six minutes and send around 110 texts daily. Imagine the damage this type of deep immersion and prolonged screen time can do to your kids’ development of mental processes, such as attention, memory, logic, and reasoning! Or picture drivers checking and sending messages while in traffic!
Technology boosted our communication impressively!
Technology came and made communication more accessible and affordable for everyone. Compared to old times, keeping in touch with friends and relatives seems effortless. You can’t name any domain that hasn’t benefitted from easy access to emails, sms, video calls, and online chat. Real estate agencies, businesses, governments, etc., can exchange vital or personal information and news thanks to technological advancements.
You can choose from many trendy digital communication applications for personal use, such as WhatsApp, WeChat, and Facebook Messenger. On the other hand, unified communication platforms integrate business communication channels into one application to save time and maximize efficiency. We recommend RingCentral, Vonage, and Fuze!
Social media
The best social media platforms, such as Facebook (hosting more than 2.7 billion active monthly users,) Instagram (over one billion users), and Twitter (330 million users but with exceptional engagement rate), are the most widespread way of enjoying technical advancements.
You can do countless things on social media. They bring the world closer to you. For example, you can join networks that share the same interests as you do. Then, you can find a job, promote your brand, and access information more easily.
However, often ‘reality’ presented on social can be distorted. Fake news and made-up accounts used for badmouthing online users are only a few of social media perils. Besides, it can damage your mental health.
Final thoughts
By all means, technology improved the quality of our lives in numerous ways. First, it made knowledge and information accessible to everyone through communication channels. Secondly, it upgraded the schooling system and brought interactive tools to engage students on a new level. Thirdly, the healthcare system can address a large spectrum of illnesses more efficiently. And lastly, transportation also has undergone substantial improvements. Hyperloop is pretty close to implementation!
Nonetheless, as in the case of everything that is under people’s control, technology, too, can go sideways. As a result, the number of potentially fraudulent people will also grow who will use technology for selfish reasons, such as profiteering, hate speech, online bullying, and trafficking illegal products and services. Unfortunately, our imagination can give birth to not only beautiful achievements but heinous acts as well.
One thing is sure. Technology will evolve, and how we use it is up to us.
