Technology in the Advancement of Society and Being Detrimental for Humankind

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Technology in the Advancement of Society and Being Detrimental for Humankind
Introduction
Innovation and advancement of technology have played an instrumental role in improving the lives of human beings. Researchers argue that innovation has been intrinsic in all spheres of human activities, be it traveling, work environments, medical treatment, computers, education, and many others. However, evidence suggests that technology can be detrimental to humankind if it tends to advance more rapidly than the current society. Richard Restak argues that in the current age of modernization and innovation, human beings are made to handle different tasks at the same time, and they have to divide their attention in order to deal with competing interests (373). Modern technology has enabled people to become more diversified in dealing with different activities, but the same innovation may expose people to conflict of interest. In such a situation, inability to multitask efficiently implies that technological innovation will ultimately have a detrimental impact on the society.
Restak’s sentiments are supported by Maria Konnikova who argues that the advancement of technology has numerous benefits to the current generation, but human beings should find a way of regulating the rate of advancement to avoid any negative impacts. She gives an example of online platforms that have enabled people to access any kind of information over the internet and also make friends through social networking (Konnikova 236). Despite the fact that online media platforms have been instrumental in advancing the way people share and access information, Konnikova argues that it differs greatly when it comes to raising children through virtual interactions instead of physical ones. It is from this perspective that online platforms tend to have a negative impact on people’s development since virtual friends cannot be able to replace physical friends. Furthermore, most people who interact on the social media platforms may not be actual friends, since online socializing enable people to even converse with complete strangers.
Technology, and more specifically, the Internet and social networking sites, provides people with an opportunity to meet diverse people and make unlimited friendships. Currently, the rapid expansion of the internet implies that virtually every person is able to access information online. Furthermore, technological advancement implies that most companies are able to manufacture mobile phones that can be used to access the internet. This implies that as the societies continue to become socially complex and the brains of the social groups become larger, so does the detrimental risks of the modern technology increases (Konnikova 236). The size of the human brain may not have the capacity of handling the multiple and complicated issues that are presented at the group level since the mind has an optimal processing level.
Konnikova’s arguments are also supported by Restak who says that the development of modern technology and diversification of the society has forced the human brain to change drastically in order to adapt. Therefore, for...