Technology: A Robotic Angel Sent From the Heavenly Skies, or Robotic Demon Spawn Sent From the Fiery Pits of Hell?

There is nothing more demeaning than having a conversation with someone who replaces entire words with single letters.

"o i c." "brb." "lol. ttyl."

What? What just happened?!?!

This is internet lingo, and it has replaced proper grammar all across the country and across generational lines, another victim of the technological boom of recent years. But whats it matter anyways? Technology is the greatest thing that has happened and has truly made our civilization prosper. Clearly, it is difficult to say that we'd be where we are without technology's help. While I know technology is not demon spawn sent from the pits of hell, I wonder, how much technology is too much? Is there such a thing? Will we ever reach a point in life where we are able to say of technology, 'Enough is enough'?

There have been revolutionary advances in technology in nearly every field imaginable, from science and health, to entertainment and music. Diseases have been cured and men have been sent to the moon. The show "Friends" has shown me the evil that can stem from making a pros and cons list, (ha! technological pop culture cameo! yes!) but let's give it a try:

Health - Stem cell research is offering new hope for people with diabetes, cancer, leukemia, and a number of other debilitating diseases. I most certainly have benefited from the advances in the medical field, but so have the majority of other people since the invention of vaccinations, anesthesia, drugs, and transplants. Hospitals are equipped with top-notch machines capable of looking through our bodies and finding whats wrong with us. Even wheelchairs and artificial limbs have made the lives of suffering people much better. In terms of the greatest benefits technology has afforded us, medical science has definitely proved a major pro.

Entertainment - Facebook, and Ipods, and Wii's, oh my! This is a touchy topic, since many pros in the entertainment industry can be doubly viewed as cons, but I'll stick with what I know. Ipods have had a major impact on the music industry as well as on the average person's life. It seems impossible to walk anywhere lately without bumping into someone not wearing earphones connected to an Ipod. Flatscreen HD tv's with humongous screens are now up in most people's homes (and who can deny a night watching Lost on the big screen?) and even video Ipods make it possible to carry television screens everywhere you go. Cell phones now have the capacity to make calls, take video and pictures, and surf the net, with the exclusion of the IPhone, which can actually do every single thing imaginable. This is a pro since it has greatly enhanced our connectivity and things like videophones, have caught crimes being committed on video, among other positives.

News - As a journalist, I have to pay proper respects to the ability technology has provided us in communicating the news. In the past, this was done orally, through speech and song, and after the invention of the printing press, in small dailies and pamphlets. Now, the news is communicated globally in a matter of seconds. Television, both network and cable news stations, has breaking news segments where news is broadcasted live, or summed up early in the morning and late at night. Internet sites seem to have a constant feed of news, updating stories after a few hours, or within seconds of new developments. The speed and accuracy with which news is shared now is amazing, and no doubt a pro.

To be clear, there are extremists on both sides of the issue. There are the Henry David Thoreau's that say "Technology is evil! Let's all live at Walden Pond!" and the humans/robots that say "Technology has never been the root cause of any ill or harm. This message will now self-destruct." I am on neither side of the argument, but caught somewhere in the middle, where I hope most people are caught. Though technology has enabled some incredible feats, it has not always been rainbows and daisies.

War, Death, and Destruction - The deaths caused by the "Little Boy" in Hiroshima and the "Fat Man" in Nagasaki totaled nearly 180,000. The prevalence of fire arms in our society has driven homicide and crime rates, as well as gang activity, through the roof. Nuclear proliferation remains a threat. Tanks, grenades, rifles, and other war machines kill daily. People are often caught up in other things and don't realize that through technology, we are are mastering the art of murder and destruction.

Dumb and Dumber - The rise in the use of technology is taking away young people's ability to write a coherent sentence. When instant messaging my friends, I'm shocked at their horrible grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Technology is making everything faster, but somethings are worth a few extra seconds of time, such as writing out the word "you" as opposed to "u." This is translating over to academic papers, as well. Emails to professors should not include acronyms in replace of every other word, but I have seen it done. I've corrected papers full of grammatical mistakes, but not understandable typos as much as blatant misuse of internet lingo in place of a more scholarly approach. As a writer, I must say, what an unfortunate con.

Interpersonal Communication - No longer exists. Sure, once in a while a face-to-face interview is done, but people now rely on the internet to do their communicating for them. It has been a while since I have mailed a hand-written letter through the standard mail, but I know people who have never done that much. What a shock! Instead, there are short phone conversations, text messages, instant messages, emails, voicemails, and evites. People screen their calls, delete emails after reading them, and spend less than a minute sending a text message in order to talk to one another. The feeling of knowing someone took time out of their day to write a personal letter, thank you note, or invitation on paper with a pen or pencil in their own writing is nearly extinct. The feelings conveyed through this form of communication do not exist online, and smileys are a joke. Con.

Aside from these cons, there is a newly developed impatience in younger generations that certainly didn't exist decades ago. We want everything a.s.a.p., and sacrifice more than we know to get them done. On the other hand, there are also more positives, like the benefit of technology in increasing our lifespans and unearthing parts of our past (such as fossils and artifacts from past civilizations). Others argue that the use of technology is, in a way, cheating human evolution, since we are not allowing the human race to naturally evolve. Again, there is the argument that the development of technology is our form of evolution, and that we are evolving more than ever before, in part through the discoveries and enhanced skills acquired in using technology. Then there's the argument presented by many about invasion of privacy through the advancement of technology, the regression of the human state if technological advancements were to end, and the hypocrisy of being for the advancement of one type of technology and not another.

There are many arguments out there, and not enough time to post them all, but I hope this has ignited a sense of the issue confronting us. I think technology has definitely gotten out of hand; however, I'm scared of the repercussions our society would face if technological advancements were to vanish. So robot angel or robot demon spawn? Not quite one and not quite the other. But when the nation's Blackberries grow human emotions, all while maintaining their technological capacities, I sure hope I haven't jinxed us all.



The Top 50 Inventions of the Past 50 Years

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/upgrade/2078467.html?page=1

What technological advances can you expect to see in 2025?

http://edition.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/01/14/tech.2025.idg/