By: Jessica Pan, JC 1 Wisdom

Technology, the current advancements in science that make our devices, social media, communication, mobile phones, etc., have become a major, ‘unremovable’ part of our lives. There are some, however, who say that technology, in general, has mainly been used for destructive purposes, socially and politically. However, I believe that despite the fact that technology can be used for harmful purposes, and have been used to do so, the vast majority of usage in technology does not have destructive purposes, and can actually be beneficial in so many ways. 

In this essay, ‘misuse’ refers to the usage of technology for things other than its intended purpose, and ‘destructive purposes’ refers to the intention of harm towards others, whether it be a demographic or person, and physically, mentally, or socially. To elaborate on this, this essay will explain how the presence of technology has been used to connect with more people; how technology has been used to make advancements against climate change; and how technology has been used to make advancements in the medical field.

The presence of social media as a result of the technology that man has today has allowed people from all walks of life around the globe to connect with one another more easily than before. Because of our technology that allows humans to connect and communicate instantly with others on virtual platforms, forming bonds with people where it otherwise would be impossible makes socializing easier for most people, as even the elderly and older generations can be taught to use it. An example of this would be Facebook, where the majority of adults go to talk about their shared interests, share what is going on in their lives, and so on, as well as YouTube, where people can create content and/or talk about their mutual interests, with features such as the Community tab and Live Streams making it easier to connect with other creators and fans. Other forms of social media, such as Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Discord, etc. roughly share the same purposes mentioned, thus creating more networks for people to discover and make new or enhance their friendships.

Technology has also been used to make further advancements in stopping global environmental issues such as carbon emissions, greenhouse gases, and climate change. The new innovation of technology has allowed devices that may help towards at least decreasing the amount of carbon emissions that contribute to climate change to exist. For example, solar panels in recent years have become far more efficient in their use, seeing as they are able to withstand more heat and use more forms of light as energy to be absorbed. Additionally, it is also due to the widespread use of solar panel technology that its price has decreased, to the point that it has become the cheapest renewable energy source. Furthermore, many advancements have been made toward renewable energy sources that will replace fossil fuels at some point in the future, so it can hardly be said that recent technology has been harmful to the environment.

Moreover, technology has also been used in aiding the production of medicines and in medical diagnoses, compared to previous years or decades. The presence of technology in medicine has allowed doctors, nurses, and medical staff to diagnose more precisely and give medical treatment quickly should the need arise, as technology has also allowed medical staff to communicate with one another quickly. For example, technology has allowed for FAST scans, MRIs, CAT scans, X-rays, etc. which allow doctors to look for dangerous signs of possibly life-threatening illnesses such as cancer, internal bleeding, broken bones, heart attack, etc. far more reliably and efficiently compared to previous years in limited technology. Furthermore, devices that medical staff have, such as Pages, have gotten far more efficient, allowing residents and doctors to arrive as quickly as they can, and telephones have allowed them to be notified of emergencies almost immediately. Thus, it cannot be said that recent technology is misused for harm.

However, what technology allows people to do on the media that they upload still has some social harm to the consumers of the media. Photos, videos, audio, and so on, have undergone manipulation through technology, and since these media take up a majority of media on the internet, it creates a harmful expectation of what people can look up to. For example, with the presence of Photoshop, photos are often altered to look more ‘perfect’, erasing blemishes, creating illusions, and this is found most prominently in photos of models, celebrities, and even ordinary people. The photoshopped images of men and women that are spread on the social network give the users harmful, impossible expectations of what their body should look like, and spread days and months of starving or overexercising themselves to achieve what is essentially an impossible goal. This has happened before, and has been the start of anorexia and eating disorders: it may not be direct harm, but if this is not harm, what else could it be?

There is also the fact that technology has been used to make political battles due to what technology is able to do. What has been essentially used for comedic purposes has been enhanced to the point where no one can tell the real from the fake, making technology be used for deception. This refers to the presence of Deepfake, where its first major widespread product was of the now former president Obama saying some nasty things, which could not be told apart from the real footage of Obama. This only goes to show that technology has been misused for harmful purposes. The Deepfake technology can now just as easily be used for defamation of other political figures and serve as fuel for opposing political parties using products of deception created by the said technology, which people who are not sceptical enough to check the sources, will believe. While Deepfake has been used for what it was intended, the fact that it can be used for that at all shows that humanity has started to use technology for harmful purposes.

In conclusion, though there are records, and still current harmful usages of technology are there, technology is still being used for good. With everything that comes out of technology, every product from it for either harm or good depending on how it is used. As harmful usage could be considered inevitable, the solution to this would be to increase cybersecurity to prevent incidents like this from happening as much as possible. Because in the end, technology will be the key to helping us with our problems, no matter what they are.