Negative Impacts Of Technology On Life: An Essay.

You depend on many technologies throughout your day that make your modern life possible. In this assignment you will look at some of these technologies and the scientific discoveries that made them possible. You will evaluate both the negative and positive impacts of these discoveries. You will also broaden your scope to look at how different cultures with different levels of access to technology approach the same problem - health care.

Think about your day from the time you wake up to the time that you go to sleep.

• List four technologies that you rely on and would find it difficult to get through your day/night without. Do these technologies have any negative impacts on your life? Why or why not
• Think about your day from when you wake up to when you go to sleep. Describe one scientific discovery that makes modern life possible.
• List as many negative and positive impacts you can think of that this scientific discovery and the technologies that it allowed to be developed may have. Evaluate and discuss if the positives outweigh the negatives overall, or whether the negatives outweigh the positives.

Many research programs around the world focus on the discovery of cures to ailments from cancer to mental illness. Modern society invests a great deal of money, and time while pushing the boundaries of modern technology to develop new cures, and improve existing treatments.

Describe one advantage and one disadvantage to the westernized high tech research approach to medical treatment.
Describe one advantage and one disadvantage to using traditional medicine as an approach to medical treatment.
Are there benefits to having multicultural approaches to medical treatment? Explain your answer.
Could these two cultural approaches both be improved by drawing upon the other? Why or why not?
Discuss any challenges there may be in combining these two different cultural approaches to treatment that have a very different level of reliance on scientific research and technology.

Addiction to the Internet and Its Negative Effects

The examples of technologies that I depend on so much and cannot live without include:

1. Internet
2. Mobile Phones –calls and messages and internet access
3. Personal computers
4. Electronic funds transfer

These technologies have a lot of advantages but their negative impacts on my life cannot be assumed as well. Internet is perhaps the technology with the greatest negative effect of addiction. I find it impossible to operate without the internet, in fact even my thinking is impaired since I would like to browse everything in the internet. This makes it difficult for me to develop thinking habits that are necessary for a student like me. Studies have also shown that internet usage leads to internet addiction disorder (Ko, Yen, Yen, Chen, & Chen, 2012; Shaw & Black, 2008). Cheng & Li (2014) conducted a study on internet addiction in 31 countries and found out that 6% of the world population is addicted to the internet. My mobile phone and computer have negatively impacted my life because I have lost touch with my friends and relatives because they are all a call, chat or an email away. According to Kietzmann, Hermkens, McCarthy, and Silvestre (2011) users of mobile phones and computers did not see the urge or need to physically be in touch with their families and friends if they could access them via calls. Wajcman, Bittman, and Brown, (2008) found out that the use of phones weakened relationships instead of strengthening them as is always expected. Electric funds transfer (EFT) has also made me become lazy because I wait until the last moments before I execute transactions. For instance, I was once unable to order food using EFT because of low internet late in the night.

The scientific discovery of the internet and its progressive advancement gives meaning to the modern life. Right from the time one wakes up to the time one goes to sleep, the internet is ever in constant demand irrespective of age. The demand for internet and its constant use has led to complex innovations of forms of internet with supersonic speed.  The users of internet from 2000 to 2009 increased from 394 million to 1.858 million internationally (Upreti, 2013). Upreti (2013) observes that internet has been associated with every facet of human life and thus the number of users is ever on the rise both for young and old. The internet is perceived as the largest information base and its access methods have also advanced with time, starting from dial-up connections, then progressively to broadband, soaring further to wireless access, and then to cellular technology. It is through the internet that people access websites for updates on current events, and we depend on it for communication or connection across the globe. The use of social networking sites is made possible through the use of internet. We also use the internet for shopping, ordering food, pursuing education, read books and play games. Indeed the internet has made modern life possible.

1. Easy communication
2. Saves time and effort
3. Source of information
4. Redefined business
5. Improved service delivery in health, education, finance etc.

1. Isolation
2. Physical inactivity leading to obesity
3. Lack of social skills
4. Pollution
5. Cyber bullying
6. Depression
7. Insomnia
8. Lack of privacy
9. Shortened attention span
10. Internet addiction
11. Moral corruption

Based on the foregoing list, it is very clear that the negative impacts of internet far outweigh the positive impacts. Studies have also shown the negative consequences of the internet to employees (Marulanda-Carter & Jackson, 2012), students (Lam, Peng, Mai,  & Jing, (2009), and marriages (Boulianne, 2009). All these confirm the fact that internet and its related technologies have had a great negative impact on society

Loss of Personal Connections Due to Technology

Advantage: the western medicine approach to treatment works effectively and fast. Patients with acute symptoms can be taken to the emergency room and the cause of illness ascertained in addition to the solution provided within few hours by using the laboratories (Dobos, & Tao, 2011).

Disadvantage: Westernized medical treatment approach can sometimes treat symptoms only without dealing with the cause of the medical problem.

Advantage: has minimal risk of side effects

Disadvantages: traditional medicine is not appropriate for a number of sudden sickness and grave accidents such as extreme trauma, broken leg, compared to western medicines  

Culture is centrally entwined into the life of people and it provides a basis upon which they are connected socially, politically, and economically. Provision of medical treatment services requires that the health practitioners do not only heal but relate to the patients on a very personal level. Thus, a multicultural approach to healthcare is important because it will lead to mutual respect between the patients and healthcare practitioners, increased trust, and consequently reducing medical errors associated to legal costs

The two approaches to treatment; westernised and traditional approach cannot be improved by drawing one upon another because their foundations and approaches towards treatment varies widely. For instance the Western approach treats body parts separately whereas the traditional approach views the body as a whole during treatment.

There are several challenges that face the combination of two different cultural approaches to treatment with varying degrees of dependence on research. The first challenge is that of authenticity. Most of the cultural approaches to treatment are based on divination or spritism except for herbalists. This is the exact opposite of an approach that is purely based on scientific research and technology and relies on authentic evidence from research for healing. Additionally, there is always a common perception among the western-trained healthcare providers that the traditional approach to healing is sometimes harmful to patients due to ignorance on how various body parts are coordinated. A combination of the two culturally diverse approaches to treatment is perceived by the westernised trainees as an act of legitimization of inappropriate traditional healing practices (Mokgobi, 2013).

References

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research. Political communication, 26(2), 193-211.

Cheng, C., & Li, A. Y. L. (2014). Internet addiction prevalence and quality of (real) life: A

meta-analysis of 31 nations across seven world regions. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 17(12), 755-760.

Dobos, G., & Tao, I. (2011). The model of Western integrative medicine: the role of Chinese

medicine. Chinese Journal of Integrative Medicine, 17(1), 11-20.

Kietzmann, J. H., Hermkens, K., McCarthy, I. P., & Silvestre, B. S. (2011). Social media?

Get serious! Understanding the functional building blocks of social media. Business horizons, 54(3), 241-251.

Ko, C. H., Yen, J. Y., Yen, C. F., Chen, C. S., & Chen, C. C. (2012). The association between

Internet addiction and psychiatric disorder: a review of the literature. European Psychiatry, 27(1), 1-8.

Lam, L. T., Peng, Z. W., Mai, J. C., & Jing, J. (2009). Factors associated with Internet

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Marulanda-Carter, L., & Jackson, T. W. (2012). Effects of e-mail addiction and interruptions

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Mokgobi, M. G. (2013). Towards integration of traditional healing and western healing: Is

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Shaw, M., & Black, D. W. (2008). Internet addiction. CNS drugs, 22(5), 353-365.

Upreti, N. (2013). Exploring the World of Collaborative Sharing over the Internet through the

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Wajcman, J., Bittman, M., & Brown, J. E. (2008). Families without borders: Mobile phones,

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