Did we become slaves to our own inventions of the technological advances?

Few weeks ago, I watched in bewilderment one of my students getting infuriated for misplacing her cellular phone. That prompted me to ask her the following question: “What would you do if you lose it and you could not afford buying a replacement?”

With horror on her face for the thought of living without a cellular phone, she responded “I would die.”
Of course, I thought that she was being melodramatic by exaggerating the impact of surviving without a cellular phone. However, when I posed the same question to the rest of the class, I was perplexed to discover that the majority of the students agreed with her in more or less dramatic terms.

To get a complete understanding of the impact of misplacing her cellular phone upon my student, I took on the task of posing the same question to some members of my family and friends.

To my surprise, most of them indicated that their lives would turn into a cumbersome, unbearable or a horrifying experience if they have to live without the conveniences of possessing a cellular phone.

I found myself asking “Did we become slaves to our own inventions of technological advances that we cannot survive without them? How did previous generations bear their existence without the conveniences of the technological advances of modern times? How did I survive my childhood without enjoying the luxury of having a television, a computer or a cellular phone?

Examining the issue further, I come to the conclusion that our survival instincts helped us to adapt to the environment of the era in which we lived..

During our childhoods, we created our own toys and invented our own games to entertain ourselves and avoid falling victims to boredom. We socialized with family and friends frequently.

At that particular moment, I lost my thoughts reminiscing about the old days when we gathered our elders listening to their captivating stories of heroism and bravery.

Can you imagine your life without the conveniences of the technological advances that we enjoy nowadays? Few would acquire the courage to answer that question negatively.

The fundamental question should focus on the impact of the technological advances upon our daily lives. Did they improve the quality of our lives or make it worse?

The answer to the previous is not that simple. They improve some aspects of our lives while they worsened others.

No one can deny the fact that they provided us with the opportunity to lead comfortable lives with the conveniences of using them.

It is crystal clear that they saved us a great deal of time by accomplishing our daily tasks electronically instead of doing them manually.

They also turned our world into a small village in which its inhabitants can reach other instantly and conveniently using emails and cellular phones. The internet provided us with libraries of information at the tips of our fingers.
One can go on about the merits of the technological advances that we are fortunate to have at our disposal yet we should not ignore their negative impact upon our daily lives.

Technological advances geared us toward lethargic and lazy existence. We tend to become coach potatoes. We prefer to watch television or text one another instead of exercising, going for a walk or visiting a friend.

It is easier to reach our family members and friends through the telephone than to suffer the hassle of driving or taking public transportation to go see them. It is clear that gradually but certainly, we are losing the human personal interaction and touch.

Needless to say, the internet and other technological advances opened the door for devious, cunning and criminal individuals to hunt and find abundance of victims to prey on.

Finally, the internet and other technological advances helped to create societies of isolated and lonely people who prefer to spend their times talking to a machine instead of interacting face to face with their peers.
Of course, there are other inconveniences of the technological advances that you may come up with if you took a moment to reflect upon the issue.

Regardless of their shortcomings, most people believe that they facilitated our lives. They believe that their merits outweigh their inconveniences or shortcomings.