Gunay Badalova Effects of Technology in Our Lives The evolution of technology has dramatically changed society. An endless number of people all over the world use and benefit from modern technology, and the tremendous opportunities it provides play a significant role in almost all fields of human life. Technology has simplified the access to many necessary tools people need in education, industry, medicine, communication, transportation, and so on. However, excessive usage of technology has its drawbacks as well. Though, in most cases, the speed of fulfilling tasks accelerates with the help of technology, many people do not realize that technology negatively affects society, and its considerable development has complicated life in a number of different ways. Technology has weakened the relations among family members. Busy with diverse devices, family members cannot have such convivial atmosphere as they used to in the past. Before the invention of these devices, family members would sit together around the table and play games together. However, since the invention of video games, those kinds of entertainment have changed to games played individually, and the impact of such games on family relations is apparent. Nowadays instead of watching TV together or eating a family meal, everyone in the family is in a separate room, either playing video games, watching football or just typing messages. Though, in some cases, technology helps parents to communicate with their children and know their location, it is not always enough for children’s safety just to stay connected with the family. People are so mesmerized by their smart phones or laptops that they are blind to others around them. Consequently, spending less time with family and more time with different gadgets can cause the loss of tight contacts with close relations. Technology also has both positive and negative effects in the area of education. Excessive usage of electronic gadgets is weakening people’s memory. Of course, the substantial development of technology has its positive effects on education as classes have become more dynamic between teachers and students with technology. Furthermore, students nowadays can communicate with their teachers and learn all the essential information via the Internet. However, students of the new generations seem to have several significant problems either with writing complete sentences or spelling words because of the frequent usage of text messages. Today’s students are also better at remembering where to look for information rather than remembering the information itself. Besides memory problems, technology usage can trigger serious diseases as well. Health problems caused by modern technology have evolved into an important problem, especially among teenagers. Adolescents pay a high price for depending on social networks, computer games and TV, especially when it comes to sleep. The Internet has become like the air to breath, the water to drink for children (Rich, par.7). This dependence seems to be the cause of several serious health problems such as sleep deprivation, vision problems, obesity, cancer and so on (Technology and Health Problems, par.1). Addiction to technology has also made people lazy; that is, people have begun to pay less attention to walking and more to sitting, listening, and playing games. Though the automation of machines has reduced the risk to human life as they perform risky jobs instead of humans, still robots themselves can create risky circumstances that are hazardous for humans. For instance, in robotic surgery people can face these risks because of instrument failures (Sairam, par.5). If people do not use such devices rationally, they can damage their lives in the near future. Technology has both positive and negative impact on the environment, too. On the positive side, technology improves the environment in terms of intense methods of agriculture, building better houses, and so on. Nevertheless, sometimes excessive land exploitation can decrease its fertility. Cars, factories, and power plants also pollute the air by emitting huge amounts of carbon dioxide, which can, eventually, trigger an ozone hole in stratospheric layer (Ausubel and Sladovich, par.3). Additionally, usage of disparate mineral resources can also pollute the air. For example, burning any kind of fuel fossils releases dangerous microscopic elements into the air (Stanic, par.3). All these kinds of pollution caused by the development of technology can lead to global environmental problems. To sum up, people can see numerous positive effects of technology on different aspects of human life such as education, agriculture, personal safety, and the environment; however, not everyone thinks about its downsides. Though modern technology indeed facilitates people’s tasks and duties, it may weaken human bodies, ruin nature, and destroy good values regarding social communication. Works Cited: Ausubel, Sladovich. Technological advancement. Washington D.C, US: National Academic publishers. 1999. http://www.oxbridgewriters.com/essays/european-studies/technology-has-bad-effectson-environment.php#ixzz2If6A0GKH Docmo. Mohan Kumar, 2012. http://docmo.hubpages.com/hub/Robotic-Surgery-The-Technology-Benefits-and-Risks Rich, Michael. If Your Kids Are Awake, They’re Probably Online. The New York Times. 21 March, 2010. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/20/education/20wired.html?scp=3&sq=tv%20obesit y&st=cse. Stanic, Claudia. Bad Effects of Modern Technology in the Environment. http://www.ehow.com/info_8570158_bad-effects-modern-technologyenvironment.html#ixzz2If787EfT Technology and Health Problems. February 29, 2012. http://doctor.ndtv.com/photodetail/ndtv/page/1/id/7885/Technology_and_health_probl ems.html#talk