Technology can be defined as the utility of scientific knowledge and machines to make the life of mankind better and easier. We are living in an era where life has been shaped by technology and its usability in almost every aspect of man’s life.

There are both positive and negative effects of technology on society due to the reason that technology has helped to reduce the expenditure and time management problems of production in every field of life.

What are the Positive and Negative effects of Technology to Society?

We are using technology so frequently that it is hard to estimate every technology that how much it is impacting our lives and how does technology affect our society in return.

Despite its wide and unlimited range of benefits, many concerns of society are rising by its frequent use.

Some people asked, “what are the negative impacts of these advancements in science and technology in the society?” and “what are the positive and negative results brought by innovations and technological advances? I will try to answer these queries as well.

Technology can affect us but it depends on the purpose for which it is being used or in which manner.

People are using it for benefits but there are some harms related to those benefits as side effects which can be classified as negative impacts of the technology on our society.

With so many benefits and utilities in every aspect of life, it is hard to isolate technology from our lives. Our society relay on the use of technology.

Why it is important to know the different positive and negative impact of science and technology?

It is important to know the different positive and negative impacts of science and technology because it can help us make informed decisions about how we use them.

While many people see science and technology as having a positive effect on society, there are also potential negative effects that should be considered.

By understanding both the benefits and drawbacks of science and technology, we can work to maximize their positive impact while minimizing their negative impact.

Positive and Negative Effects of Technology on Society:

Technology itself is neither good nor bad it is the usage that concludes its goodness or badness. This dependency has increased so much that we can conclude that we can not live without technology.

Positive and Negative Effects of Technology on Society
Positive and Negative Effects of Technology on Society

In other words, technology has changed the thinking, behavior, living habits, and cultural life of a human.

The question might arise here in your mind is technology good or bad for the society in which we are living?

So yes technology is the need of today’s society as well as an alarming situation due to its negative effects. Let’s have a comprehensive look at the positive and negative effects of information technology on our society.

10 Positive and Negative Effects of Technology on Society

Pros
  • Technology has Improved the Healthcare Industry
  • Technology Has Improved Education and Learning Process
  • Influence of Technology on Transportation
  • Technologies Changing Agriculture
  • Technology is Revolutionizing the Energy Sector
Cons
  • Technological Advancements in the field of Industrialization is creating Pollution
  • Health problems caused by Technology
  • Technology’s Influence on Climate Change
  • Technology is architecting warfare
  • Family relations badly affected

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Positive Effects of Technology On Society:

Dozens of examples can be cited for the positive effects of digital technology on society that benefited human life.

Positive and Negative Effects of Technology on Society
Positive and Negative Effects of Technology on Society

Here I am going to list down some of the important and basic fields that use technology for different and useful purposes in a very positive fashion and are contributing to making society better.

Technology has Improved the Healthcare Industry:

The evolving technology has benefited and saved lives. Science and Technology have brought so many positive changes in the field of the healthcare industry and made our lives, even more, simpler than that before.

Let’s have a brief overview of how technology has contributed to the healthcare industry:

  • New medical technologies helped doctors to diagnose disease more precisely. The latest telecommunication system enables a specialist doctor to prescribe medicines to patients miles away in a village dispensary where the facility is not available.
  • The medical history of a patient can be saved and shared easily with doctors from around the globe. Mobile devices help patients to access a doctor quickly for first aid in case of emergency.
  • Nowadays minimal invasive surgeries are performed precisely with different medical types of equipment to minimize the risk and effect of surgery.
  • Technology has provided new foundations for research in the medical field that resulted in the inventions and creations of vaccines for lethal diseases.

If you want to know more about the impact of technology in the healthcare industry, click here.

Technology Has Improved Education and Learning Process:

Technology is helping the process of working and learning. The education system is also one of the fields which are greatly facilitated by technology and making the world a better place for living for everyone.

Let’s have a brief overview of how technology has contributed to the education sector:

  • Video and audio programs are used for learning purposes by the students.
  • Different kinds of educational apps have been developed by companies to facilitate teachers and students. Mobile devices and laptops with web connections are providing teachers and students with the latest research and information available.
  • With the large storing ability of devices the students can store a large amount of data and can carry it anywhere. They can explore multitudinous opportunities for their future.
  • Virtual classrooms are enabling education to flourish in far areas. Students can now track opportunities around the globe and remain updated.
  • The concept of distance learning or e-learning made it easy to learn effectively and hence maximizes the knowledge retention of both students and teachers.

Read more about the impact of technology on education.

Influence of Technology on Transportation:

Travelling has become a hobby to millions and become an interesting activity because of the advanced comfortable rides. Traveling from one region of the world to another has never been so easy earlier as it is now with the advanced fast airline services.

Let’s have a short overview of how technology has contributed to the transportation sector:

  • Bullet trains can take passengers from one city to another in very little time.
  • Logistics and shipment services of goods are now very efficient and quick due to technological advancement and ease in operation provided due to technology in different countries.

Technologies Changing Agriculture:

If we look at the sector of agriculture before the advancements of technology, it was not possible to grow crops in deserted areas but thanks to technology which made it all easy.

Due to the advancements of technology in the field of Agriculture, production is growing even safer and faster.

Let’s have a brief overview of how technology has contributed to the agriculture sector:

  • Technology is also playing a vital role in global food security and helps in providing billions of people with food. Today’s agriculture is highly mechanized which makes farmers able to grow crops in areas where it was not possible before.
  • All the field operations and cultural practices seedbed preparation, cutting, and harvesting of crops on large fields are done in a few hours.
  • Advancement in fertilizer technology and pest control with ultra volume technology has played a major role in providing crops a favorable environment for growth and maximum yield.
  • Solar energy is exploited through solar technology glasses and troughs for transmission of water and other needs in fields. Weather forecasts and other meteorological types of equipment help to predict the response and needs of the crops for better management.
  • Cooling facilities and other storage facilities in vehicles developed through technological advancements have increased the shelf life of agricultural products which enables farmers to sell their produce in distant markets and export them to other countries.

Read more about the role of technology in agriculture.

Technology is Revolutionizing the Energy Sector:

One of the major positive impacts of technology on society is that it is contributing greatly to the Energy Sector by bringing up more and more clean, safe, efficient, durable, and sustainable sources of energy.

Energy is the most important resource to run the modern world. Let’s have a brief overview of how technology is revolutionizing the energy sector:

  • All the digital technology which is the basic need of the modern world work on electricity. Electricity production on such a large scale in hydropower dams through electric turbines and electric generators is possible only through technology. The generators store electricity and it is transmitted to the cities for consumption.
  • Recently developed solar technology is emerging at a rapid pace due to its benefits as an economical and clean source of electric city production. More research work is in progress to run all types of vehicles on solar energy to prevent dependency on limited resources of fossil fuels.
  • Fossil fuels contributing about 80% of the energy needs of the world. Fossil fuels are explored on land as well as on oceans through the latest mapping technology. Drilling is done by the use of mega technological machines.

Negative Effects of Technology On Society:

The negative effects of technology on society can be referred to as the result of poor and inefficient use of technology which can affect society in terms of health or security values

Negative impacts of information technology on society are arising due to ill use or over-usage of technology.

Like many positive impacts, there are many negative impacts of technology on society in which I have pointed out some of the pinpoints. Let’s have a brief look at each of these:

Technological Advancements in the field of Industrialization is creating Pollution:

Technology is harmful to the society in which we are living in so many ways. The technology being used up in the manufacturer’s area causes pollution and hence makes the environment harmful and polluted for the people.

Let’s have a brief overview of how technology creates pollution and makes society harmful for the people:

  • With technological growth, industrialization has expanded gigantically which emits noxious by-products in the environment which affects the ecosystem and environment for life on earth. These by-products have toxic chemicals and gases which are carcinogenic which cause health problems. A large amount of these by-products is disposed of, in lakes, canals, and rivers which are accumulated in oceans that have endangered marine life too.
  • Emission of a huge amount of different gases including carbon dioxide, carbon mono oxide, and sulfur oxide from vehicles, ships, and airplanes is also an evolving problem that is one of the primary causes of many diseases like asthma, bronchitis, and cancer.
  • Due to the lack of control strategies the by-products from industries and emissions from vehicles have become a major problem in many developing countries where health facilities are not advanced and affected the health of millions of people.

Health problems caused by Technology:

Good Health is the basic rule for living a good life but unfortunately due to the misuse of technology people are suffering from different sorts of health issues. Using technology anywhere anytime can badly affect your physical and mental health and the routine of your normal and daily life.

According to the research; “Blue light emission from mobile and other digital devices can affect the sleep cycle.”

Let’s have a short overview of how technology is damaging your health;

  • Digital devices are affecting people in many ways many young generations can not maintain proper posture due to the over-usage of digital devices like laptops in improper sitting positions.
  • Many adults have detached from their loved ones because of overusing the web and social media which badly affected social life.
  • Studies reveal that; “Emotional problems, stress, anxiety, and depression are also due to the over usage of social media.”
  • Other problems like blurred vision, headache, muscle pain, and lack of focus are also caused by the frequent use of digital technology.

Technology’s Influence on Climate Change:

Technology is playing a massively rapid role in climate change. Technological advancements include both positive and negative changes and impacts on our society.

For now, we will have a brief look at how technology’s influence is harmful to the society in which we are living:

  • Technological advancement leads to the industrial revolution and increased transportation. With such a large amount of vehicles and industries running on daily basis emissions of toxins and heat energy have tremendously increased. Heat energy emission to the atmosphere is giving rise to global warming which is resulting in climate change. It has now become a hot issue that has been addressed in the UN assembly by the world leaders.
  • Globalization and industrialization are resulting in deforestation. More than 50% of industries are promoting deforestation for their raw materials. This deforestation disturbs the ecosystem which results in unexpected weather patterns. Climate change is making farmers bear losses which can fan hunger in poor families.
  • The Australian forest fire of 2019 which killed millions of animals and destroyed homes and lands is the consequence of climate change. The frequency of such forest fires may increase in the future due to climatic changes caused by the excessive use of hazardous technology.

Technology is architecting warfare:

The rapidly increasing use of technology in wars is making society harmful for the people to live in. Let’s have a brief look at how technology being used in war has negative impacts on society:

  • Destructive weapons developed in the last few decades have increased the severity of wars. Weapon technology is used for different terrorist acts. From the 19th century until now and weapon tech took millions of innocent lives.
  • War always brings destruction and is the most horrific thing encountered by nations. War and terror are the most horrific risks to human civilization. Thousands of different kinds of modern destructive weapons developed through technological advancements.
  • Weapons like atomic bombs are a threat to human civilization that can wipe out life on earth. In August 1945 two atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki which killed millions of innocent people. Nuclear bombs are a calamitous weapon ever used in human history and it has become the world’s grand fear. All these are the result of the adverse use of technology.

CONCLUSION:

From the above-stated points, we can easily conclude that technology is really important for the survival of humans in society but at the same time, it has so many harmful effects on the human being that lives in that society.

It is the technology that is shaping our society. It can make our life better and it can become a threat to our life too. The results that appear are as per the way we are using it. Our use makes technology favorable or awful.

I will be writing more about the involvement and effects of science and technology in our lives. Use the comment section in case of any queries Related to “Positive and Negative Effects of Technology on Society“.

Keep up reading and learning with Tech Baji.

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Ruby has been a writer and author for a while, and her content appears all across the tech world, from within ReadWrite, BusinessMagazine, ThriveGlobal, etc.

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