Today most people can't go five minutes without looking at their phone. People couldn't remember their grocery list, find directions to get somewhere or even wake up at the right time in the morning without their phones. Technology has had an enormous impact on everyday life over the last century.
If technology didn't exist, who knows where we may be? Life would be simpler; there would be no YouTube, no google, not even TV. No nuclear weapons, no hackers, there might not even be airplanes!
How would we communicate? Would we send letters? What about travel? Would there still be cars? Maybe kids would play outside, kick around a soccer ball for fun or play tag. Maybe kids would play board games and card games. Maybe teenagers would talk to their friends, laugh and have fun together. Maybe they would get off their phones, stop texting and scrolling through Instagram.
How would adults do their jobs? What about authors? Would they hand-write their books? Would there be typewriters? Maybe they would have to write each copy that they wanted to sell by hand. How about salesmen? How would they ring up someone's purchase, would they not have computers? Does that mean there wouldn't be credit cards? What about construction workers? With no cars there would be no construction vehicles. Would they build and dig and lift by hand?
Scientists can't make up their minds on whether technology is good or bad. There are many theories about how technology has made us antisocial and how it makes us dumber. Intelligence Squared discussed the pros and cons of advanced technology in a recent article. “Smart technology creates dependency on devices, narrows our world to echo chambers, and impairs cognitive skills through shortcuts and distraction,” they said, explaining technology’s negative effects.
However, technology is also extremely useful and convenient. A pro-technology website claims technology “basically refers to bringing together tools that ease creation, use and exchange of information, [and] has a major goal of making tasks easier to execute as well as solving many mankind’s problems.”
Technology can lead to people becoming uneducated and antisocial, it can be a lifesaver and helpful tool in communication and education or a go-to thing to do when you're bored. No matter what it is, life would be a whole lot different without it. So who knows what it would be like if technology didn't exist?
