The pros and cons of advancing technology

Technology
Friend or Foe?

Welcome to the 21st Century! Here you will find that you no longer have to dial a ten digit number to call someone. It takes 2 minutes rather than 2 weeks to send a letter and you can turn your lights off without getting up from your chair. That's right folks; here in the 21st Century we have vastly advanced that crazy concept called technology. No more video cassettes or tape recorders. No more wasting your money on music or movies. With just a click of a button you can have anything your little heart desires. You have to ask yourself though, as technology advances, do we slow down? Have we become victims of laziness and potential danger because of computers and cell phones? Are machines running or possibly ruining our lives? Just like everything else there are pros and cons to technology.

There's a CD you really want for your collection but you can't afford it. No problem, you can download it off the internet free of charge. You're in the car and you witness a huge accident on the highway, tons of people are hurt and the tragedy is holding up traffic. All you need to do is pull out your cell phone and call for help. Technology is great when you need things done fast. Cell phones, computers, even coffee makers are now so much more efficient, quick and easy to use for most people. Let's face it; they are also tons of fun. Think about it, we've got robots vacuuming our carpets and scrubbing our floors. These are things we always dreamed of but never though would ever be possible. Day after day we are entertained by all our gadgets, we are conversing with people all over the world and we are using this power to benefit many people and organizations. This energy has helped medical equipment advance and has benefited scientists and research programs all over the world. It's really amazing how quickly technology is developing and how far it has come. It was not even 20 years ago that people were laughing at the idea of e-mail and now most people live by it. It's just pretty amazing when you think of all the things you can do. I mean I've actually heard of a coffee machine that tells you the weather and checks you e-mail for you. It's all so amazing, there are no words left to describe it.

       You haven't seen your friends in a longtime and they invite you out to dinner and a movie. You tell then you can't because you are busy that night. What are you doing? You're chatting and playing o the internet with some guy from Denmark. You're sitting at a traffic light and people are honking at you and you have no idea why. All of a sudden you get in to this huge accident. What happened? You were talking on your cell phone. Your mother asks you to clean up the house, so you turn on the robotic vacuum and floor scrubber. All of a sudden you become this lazy person who doesn't do anything for himself and you grow up as a selfish and useless human being. As you can see, there is a downside to technology. It seems to be taking up so much of our time that we don't want to do anything else. Students don't focus on their school work because they are so wrapped up in their music, movies and video games. Technology can also potentially be very dangerous. You stop paying attention to your surroundings and can cause accidents and other problems. It spoils us and makes us lazy and inattentive to the world. Machines are running our lives. How far will it go?

So there are good things and bad when it comes to technology. I think what we need to learn to do is not take such advantage of it. It is there for our entertainment and practical use; but we have to remember that we can't rely on it for everything. We have to be able to live for 5 minutes without our iPods and our blackberries. Sometimes you just have to get up and turn the lights off yourself.