Negative and positive influences of technology

Technology is part of our lives, for example, over three billion people worldwide use the Internet.  New technologies have had an impact on the environment, on humans. Given that science has evolved fast  in recent years, the environment as well as men kind have been affected in many ways in different areas. Through the years this influenced our lives in both positive and negative ways.

Certainly, the impact of technology development on the younger generation is a topic of widespread debate. Their brain is extremely malleable during this period of development, being susceptible to environmental experiences. In fact, children grow up in an environment where technology means everything, searching for information, friends, fun, communication, studies.

Children’s enthusiasm when it comes to Internet, iPhone, iPad, Facebook, Youtube can be based on the immediate reinforcements they receive and the stimulating environment full of sounds and colors.

One of the negative aspect  is represented by the online or  video games  wioch have been blamed for children’s aggression and hyper activity. Also technological devices can influence the mental health of people, study cases are  showing that technology  is the cause for sleep problems.

Another negative impact can be clearly seen at teenagers, wasting more time using technology, they loose the contact with the real world and become more focused on virtual lives and online environment, they become addicted to it and most of them get to a point where they refuse to not use it , they can’t be apart from their computers or phones.

Altough, technology has some advantages too being able to influence human life in positive ways too, making everything easier. With technology we can communicate with relatives who live far away from us, with the help of the Internet we can find information, with the help of aviation technology we are able to reach different places in a few hours, which was not possible in the old days. With social networks we can find friends and communicate.

I belive technology helps us and it is usefoul but regardless of how convenient it is we should never forget to spend quality time with others and not only send texts to each other, it’s important to remember that even if we live in a life where technology  makes anything possible, we should never let it rule over us.

Internet and it’s short history

The internet is by far the most popular source of information and the first choice for those interested in learning the latest news, surpassing media with a much longer history: television, newspapers and radio, it is also seen as the most reliable source.

The history of the Internet begins with the early development of computers and communications networks (1950 and 1960) and can be divided into several stages. The idea of a computer network designed to allow general communication between users on different computers was dependent on technological and fusion developments in the existing telecommunications systems and networks.

 The Internet is the result of the work of dozens of researchers, programmers and engineers who developed different technologies that brought together formed what is called „Information superhighway”. The story of the internet begins long before the technology that created it has emerged. One of the first people to juggle with the idea of a „wireless world” was Nikola Tesla in the early 1900s. However, the first internet practice scheme emerged only in the early 1960s when J.C.R. Licklider from MIT has popularized the idea of an „intergalactic network”. Soon, researchers have created the concept of „packet switching” an electronic data transmission method that will later become one of the cornerstones of the Internet.

The first functional prototype of the Internet emerged in the late 1960s with the emergence of ARPANET. AARPANET used conceptually „packet switching” to allow multiple computers to communicate on a single network

The online world took shape known today in 1990 when Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web. Although it is often confused with the Internet itself, the World Wide Web is just the most common way of accessing online data in the form of websites or hyperlinks. WWW helped popularize the internet among the public and was a huge step in developing the huge amount of information the public can access day by day.

Evolution of Technology

The term „advanced technologies” or „top technologies” is also known as „high-tech” meaning the most advanced technology currently available. Advanced technologies are highly specialized and sophisticated. Advanced technology involves a scientific technology for the production or use of advanced or sophisticated devices, particularly in the electronics and computer fields.

Industries with advanced technologies are those using intensive research-development, which systematically apply scientific concepts and technical knowledge.

Through the years technology has evolved fast and even to this day it keeps evolving becoming more and more present, more improved, advanced to a point that we can do anything and everything using technology. Now, this aspect has good and bad parts as any other subject discussed here but the mere point and fact is that technology has developed so much from the very beginning of it’s existence until now. For example, if before we used to write with a writing machine today we use computers and smartphones, if before we used to send letters to communicate with our loved ones or anyone actually, today we just pick up our phone press some buttons and send a text.

Let’s take cinematography as an example, we all watch movies from horror to drama and comedy, movies have always been a pleasant way to relax or just waste time and even they went through a period of evolvement and improvement.

Let’s  look at the old movies, made in a time when technology was less advanced and compare them to movies we watch today, created in an era where technology is more advanced offering more opportunities.  The difference between these two is clear and while I still love old movies and have a grate respect for them, I can  say the movies or TV series made recently in this era of continuously growing technology, are better. They have a better stage property, sound, special effects, shooting techniques, all of these have a higher quality than they had when old movies where made.

Two good examples that would represent a clear comparison are the movie “Night of the living dead” wich appeared in 1968 and was presented to me in one of my courses and  the movie “The Nun” wich appeared in 2018. They both belong to the same genre, horror, but we can clearly see that the movie made in an era when technology was advanced has better special effects, better sound and looks more realistic all thanks to an improved technology.

YouTube and Meme

Other important components of the online are represented by Youtube and  Meme.

 YouTube is a Web site where users can upload and watch audio and video. It was created in February 2005 by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim. It displays a wide range of user-created videos, including TV or movie clips. YouTube is part of the recent phenomenon called Web 2.0. Unregistered users can view all the videos on the site, and registered users can upload videos, make comments and make notes on videos.

 First of all, YouTube influences us through vloggers, those people who post on their channel all kinds of videos from updates of their lives, educational videos to funny videos and grocery hauls. We relate to them, they give us content that we enjoy, is relatable to us or just helpful in a way. There are millions of vloggers offering all different kinds of content that is going to appeal to everyone, or at least to some of us.

YouTube is an important component of the internet and online environment because it has music to wich we listen everyday, because it has vloggers who offer us a variety of videos. YouTube channels have been developing and vloggers are adapting to new trends creating content to please us and they are succeeding, especially with younger kids, they  have a huge impact on adults, teens and even children, exactly because their videos are relatable.

The impact can be positive for example the educational channels that have videos  showing study tips, teach you a language or anything helpful. To give you a real example, I had a faze in high school, tenth grade when I developed a passion for Korea and Korean culture. I started learning korean and in order to do that I looked for every single video on YouTube that could help me learn this language. 

The second component is represented by the miraculous memes, you know the ones you’ve been tagged in by friends, or the ones you have been tagging your friends in. Memes, today, have reached an unbelievable popularity, because like vloggers, they are  relatable, funny and they touch a variety of subjects, from love, friendship, student life, dark humor or just daily things.

The term also refers to the concept of memes, but refers to a wider category than that of cultural information. An internet phenomenon is an idea spread on the World Wide Web. The idea may take the form of a hyperlink, video, image, site, hashtag, or just a word or phrase, in which a word is written and pronounced intentionally wrong.

An internet phenomenon may stagnate or may evolve over time by commenting, imitating, parodying, or incorporating it into news.

Memes have a long history, the first meme that went viral was in 1996 called the dancing baby, practically a video of a baby mannequin dancing. Ever since then, it kept evolving eventually becoming the memes we all know  today.

Today they dominate the internet and sneak into everyone’s heart, personally I am a big fan.

Online environment and social networks

The online environment dominates us every day, it is present in our lives constantly, and we let it, especially because it offers us the magical social media platforms like Facebook or Instagram, one of the most popular social media platforms that everyone uses or used them at some point in their life. Other popular platforms are Tumblr, Twitter, YouTube.

We encounter a variety of things online, social networks, informations, news, movies, music, games and so on. We enjoy every single thing the online environment has to give us but mostly we use it to communicate and we do that through social media. We can read news on Facebook, for example, post pictures of our cute outfits, pets or travel destinations on Instagram. We say our opinions, we give and receive likes, comments, all of this is giving us a feeling of acceptance, of being  a part of something, a community,we feel like we belong. We meet people, maybe make some friends and like this the online environment becomes our best friend..

In this era, social networks have gained incredible ground. All this happened in a fairly simple way: they allow the surprise item to fit perfectly into the context, whether the purpose of the communication is purely informative or refers to promotion. Social networks are crowned as queens of interactivity.

From websites to HTML and web design, we can get to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and a new way to communicate.

Facebook is an Internet social networking web site created by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 to provide the opportunity to contact nearby people as well as people who are still unknown. At this time facebook is one of the most widespread social networks in the world. Appreciated as the world’s second social networking site after google.com, facebook is part of the phenomenon recently called Web 2.0.

Instagram  is an online photo-sharing, video-sharing and social networking service that gives users the ability to upload photos and videos, apply digital filters, and distribute them on a variety of social networks such as Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter.