Technology evolved from the society. Everything technology needed for its growth and advancement it got from the society. Many will argue that it gave everything back to the society too, and rightly so. Technology depends greatly on the society, and the society falls back to technology for its development and improvement. The relationship seems cordial, but is one party unfairly exploiting the other in any way?
Technology is in the society. The society is into technology. The society contributes the human and material resources necessary for technology to blossom. There is no denying the obvious fact that technology has indeed, blossomed. The point of discourse is what technology has taken, and is still taking away from the society in its course for growth.
Firstly, it should be observed that the societal utilization of technology played a large role in denting the image of technology. Some of the harmful effects of technology, which range from pollution to the obvious depletion of the world’s nonrenewable natural resources, were unintended. They came to the fore after pronounced use of technological processes. They were unforeseen and are totally regretted simply because they take as much as they offer from the society. Withdrawing these processes from the society has become near-impossible because of the total dependence of the society on technology.
The major reason for technology was the simplification of human life. It had in mind the maximization of resources to ensure total control of the immediate environment and the proceedings in it. As a consequence of technology, information has become ubiquitous, communication has improved beyond comprehension and the overall quality of societal life has grown immeasurably. Sports have been commercialized and establishments have been able to expand their tentacles across continents.
Different forms of danger have also resulted from technology. From the top-drawer, one could cite global warming and pollution as major issues. Then there is the little matter of all the negatives that emanate from the internet. Every new technology also seems to come with its own problems of waste which the society finds it difficult to manage. The harmful effects of all types of waste are also well documented.
Technology seems incapable of solving all the problems it has created. This is seen in many quarters as a failure of the concept. Many fail to realize that it is the societal use of technology that gives rise to these dangers. This makes it harsh for the society to blame technology for its shortcomings. In the face of all the prevailing arguments, one might just ask if both concepts are actually separable.
