Often when the media talks about the influence of technology in our lives, they refer to new technologies or high technology. Hearing the word technology ourselves, we tend to think of state-of-the-art computers, spaceships, artificial satellites, high-voltage networks, power plants, large machines ...
However, the most domestic and everyday objects are also technological products: the books, the clothes we wear or the pens have not always been there, they arose as a result of a discovery or invention at a certain moment in history; They were also, in their day, cutting-edge technology.
The History of the technology
Technology does not have a date of birth as such, that is, we cannot say that from a specific year it was created or invented. It seems to be something that exists since the beginning of our species
Stages of technology evolution
Stone Age: Stage that includes the beginnings of humanity, when we were a fundamentally hunting and gathering species, which learned to use stone and bone instruments to hunt
Age of metals: Permanent settlements, the domestication of animals and the discovery of the forge, that is, of the metallurgical work that allowed the human being to forge simpler, more versatile and resistant tools
Middle Ages: The Middle Ages represented a slowdown in human technological development, especially in the West, since religion and mystical thought replaced reason and demonized ancient knowledge for almost fifteen centuries.
Modern Age: The Modern Age is characterized by the commitment to scientific and technological progress, especially after the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution that it led to in the XV and XVI century
Contemporary Age: The Contemporary Age is ongoing, and refers to the last two centuries of our history, in which our technological reach has forever revolutionized the way we understand ourselves and understand life on our planet.
Technological revolutions
Throughout our history as a species there have been several technological revolutions
The Neolithic Revolution (10,000 BC approximately): When agriculture was discovered and nomadism was abandoned in favor of the first cities.
The Industrial Revolution (1780-1840): It exerted the greatest and most profound number of changes in human society since the Neolithic, going from the traditional rural economy to the industrialized urban economy, with the factory as the main axis.
The Technical Revolution (1880-1920): Called the Second Industrial Revolution, in which the market economy globalized and expanded the effects of the first throughout the world.
The Digital Revolution (1985-2000): Consequence of the change that the appearance of computers and computer networks exerted on the social, work and economic dynamics of the world, opening the way to globalization.
Comparison of the technology of the past with the present
TECHNOLOGY IN PEOPLE
Technology and Work
According to Forbes magazine, 33% of Internet users who are active on social networks are of working age, with Facebook (95%), YouTube (60%) and Twitter (56%) being the most common. There are many advantages to using technology and using social networks within the workplace: first, technology has made jobs more flexible and home or remote office possible, to avoid stressors removing barriers of schedules, distances and contributing to form a feeling of productivity and assertiveness in managing schedules.
Technology and Family
Without a doubt, technology has presented new challenges for current families, especially in terms of communication, but it also offers new ways of living together. First, we must focus on the fact that technologies are tools that offer us alternatives, so we must use them to our advantage and understand the role they have in the lives of our loved ones. We can also understand certain phenomena and explain them to our children, for example, UNICEF points out that when interacting on the Internet the limits that exist in the physical world are not so clear, so we tend to generalize or exaggerate the links; It should be clarified that not everyone we have on social networks is a friend or is trusted
The technology of the future
The technology of the future invades today's society, advancing daily some of the innovations that will spread in the coming decades and that soon will not be as typical of science fiction as you could imagine. Looking back now, just a few decades, and imagining that the people of the time did not have something as basic as the mobile phone, makes one think of three very simple words: anything is possible. In a short time, society has become accustomed to being able to make calls from wherever and whenever it wants. In the future, it is very likely that another type of technology that now seems distant will be established among citizens with the greatest normality. There are already many projects in development that speak of some of the ideas that could be implemented, highlighting among them some as interesting as:
-Smart clothes
-Bionic eye lenses
-Integrated mobiles
-High-level virtual reality
Negative effects of the use of new technologies
The negative effects that excessive consumption of new technologies can produce are the following:
-55% of young people between 14 and 18 years old consume video games
-Between 6 and 9% of internet users have addiction problems.
-There is an internet addiction disorder (TAI) derived from abuse.
-Loss of sense of reality
-Difficulties in learning
-Problems in reading, writing and thinking development extract.
-Loss of sense of reality
-Unfolding of the adolescent's personality: the "real me" and the invented "ideal me"
-Loss or non-acquisition of securities (superhero)
-Learning from violence
-Learning from human rights abuse
-Decrease in school, family and work performance
-Isolation and loss of affects and emotions.
From use to abuse and from abuse to addiction
The first symptoms of misuse of new technologies are:
-Increased consumption both at home and abroad.
-Tendency to social isolation
-Progressive breakdown of real social relationships.
-Significant decrease in school performance
-Aggressiveness
-Fantastic ideas
For this, it is important to approach it from both the educational and the therapeutic part.
Regarding the educational approach, you can choose the following:
-Encourage outdoor activities among young people.
-Parents should talk and play with their children in order to improve communication.
-Parents should become role models for their children, not be replaced by other television or video game references.
-Schools must conduct educational campaigns to correctly use the media and turn them into learning tools.
-When consuming content from both television and the Internet, you should choose those that convey values and emotions that the young person is capable of processing and understanding.
-Limit the hours of consumption to promote its proper use.
On the therapeutic side, you can work on the following aspects:
-Establish fixed schedules and try to spend as little time as possible in front of a computer.
-Add filters to websites and parents are present when young people connect to the internet.
-Avoid the computer in the room.
-Lead by example.
In conclusion, technology is an indispensable tool for man since it is part of it, the only question is knowing how to use it, we have the advantage of making our lives easier, more practical and faster, compared to the past, we must take advantage of what that we have now and improve and what better than with the use of technology.
