Our Relationship With Technology
When I google myself,I find pictures from highschool volleyball, the occasional throwback instagram post or retired twitter profile picture, and sometimes even find photos of one of my brothers playing lacrosse (Due to having the same last name). This is a very reasonable and frankly relieving search find. Some people don't have it this "easy", however. If you were to google anyone who has a somewhat severe run in with the cops, a mugshot is likely to be found. In some instances,
you can find old controversies for people, depending on their following and how much attention it received. From an employers point of view, this is the easiest way to find out if you do or don't want to hire an applicant. As for the applicants, depending on what is found in the search, you may or may not want run away and start a new life.
Personally, I've never been overly open on the internet. Of course I had those middle school cringe-worthy dancing and singing videos, a couple questionable selfies, you know the average "Just got my first phone!" posts. I know a lot of people who cannot say the same. Honestly, it's almost heart breaking. One mistake, one stupid little post, can mess up your future relationships, jobs, even credibility. A single post can engrave your reputation to something you would never want.
Of course technology is not always the villain, it can also be used in heroic ways. When the pandemic hit, students were moved to online classes, rather than being sent home and losing months, even years, worth of education. It connects family and friends who are not able to physically be together. It enables learning and curiosity. The amazing thing about search engines like google is their vast variety of answers. Almost any question you could imagine can be found with one simple search.
The growth of technology over decades is indescribable. It is almost breathtaking the amount of changes we have seen in such a short time. These advancements have helped with medicine, development of U.S. war weaponry, and overall communication throughout nations. The scary part is how far CAN we go? We must ask ourselves, at what point will technology be TOO much? Too invasive, too harmful, too uncontrollable?
We have seen dystopian and sci-fi films where technology has been used against communities. Where governments have abused their power and accessibility to use technology against their own people, the people they should be protecting and working cohesively with. We've seen videos of couples on dates where their noses are buried in their phones, videos of children with tablets acting so zombie-like and addicted, even people misusing simple social media applications like instagram and twitter to bully, harass, even threaten others. That is just the start, the basics.
The dark web exists. People can buy war grade guns and machines off the internet. People can steal money and identities from the without even leaving their homes. Child pornography, evidence of animal abuse, the possibilities are endless as to what evil things can be found on your computer.
It is disappointing that the evil parts of the world have such an extended platform and capability. It ruins the good in the internet. Being able to video chat with long distance relatives on Christmas morning could possibly be taken away because of the misuse. When I wasn't able to attend my grandmothers 90th birthday, I was on Facetime with my family for 30 minutes just so I wasn't missing such a big event. If I didn't have that available, who knows if I would be attending a university 12 hours away.
My hope is that somehow our next technological advances include decreasing the evil and harmfulness and improving on the good. I understand that good things can be twisted. and used for the wrong reason, but one can hope, right?
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