Technology: Good Or Bad Essay, Research Paper

Technology: Good or Evil?

People have often debated whether technology is good or bad. Many people believe that technology can only cause harm to their lives and to the society, while many others strongly defend the technologies which have made their lives much more leisurely and enriching than it could have been with the absence of technology. In my opinion, both of these views are correct to an extent, but I also believe that what should be examined is not whether technology in its self is good or bad, but rather how we decide use it.

Household appliances have greatly evolved in the last century. Refrigerators, gas and electric ovens, microwaves, vacuums, dishwashers….the list goes on and on. All these things have made housework much easier than it would have been about 100 years ago. This results with both positive and negative effects. It has given us easier ways to get jobs done, leaving more time for other things, but the bad part of this is what is chosen to do in this extra time. In many cases, this extra time is spent doing leisurely things, which might make us happier, but also has an effect on our health. Lately we have become aware of the dangers of heart disease and the health benefits of exercise. We would have gotten most of this necessary exercise 100 years ago just from doing our daily chores but now aren t getting enough because we don t have to work as hard to do those same chores. This can be blamed on technology, but again, in fact it is our own fault because we chose to use the technology and spend the extra time lazing around, generally speaking.

Something that really bothers me about technology is when nothing is made out of it. I often question why people spend so much time and money trying to come up with so many useless things when we have global warming problems and starving children working in shoe factories. For example, scientists spent years to make a clone of a sheep. Now let me ask you, is their any practical use in knowing how to clone a sheep? Many people argue that eventually this scientific advancement will lead into bigger things like the cloning of humans, but again, what is the point? I strongly feel that nothing good can come from that. Instead, I think scientists should be using technology to come up with things that can greatly help the majority of the world s population and make the world a better place.

It seems technology has brought both useful and pointless things into our lives. Things that have contributed to making our lives better as well as causing some negative affects. As we live in this information age with new products and discoveries coming to us everyday, we must remember to use our best judgment to decide what technologies are good and which could be harmful. We must also remember that whatever technology does to our lives, technology in itself is not to blame, but rather how we used it.