As we all know, technology is taking over our society and unfortunately, there is not much we can do to stop it. So, rather than putting it down, humans should begin to see the positive impact that technology will have on society while considering the negatives.

We can already see evidence of technology having a positive effect on society as literacy rates have increased from 67% to over 86%, that is nearly a 20% increase. Technology, applications, websites and softwares have been developed to assist people who do not speak a fluent language, did not have access to a sufficient education for the necessary period of time and even those with no education. It is a staggering effect that has been achieved and we only have the developers to thank for that. Furthermore, students in schools, colleges and universities are naturally more engaged learning from a colour video or summarised piece of text than learning from a 400 page, thick textbook where you constantly lose your pages. It has shown a soar in better results in O-Levels, GCSEs, and A-Levels. Jobs which previously relied on constant pen and paper have been transformed by technology and it has become far easier to complete remote learning activities.

With positives, always come negatives. Unfortunately, many people have become too reliant on technology and use it AS their knowledge rather than a BACKUP of their knowledge which then slowly reduces a human’s skill to take in knowledge. This is having a negative impact on schools and teachers as the students are relying on calculators, Google, and even AI websites such as ChatGPT to have homework done for them by the click of a button. Many people are struggling to complete basic exams or questions when in test conditions as it is just simply impossible for students to not use technology in exams. Many people who fail to succeed in exams or school now have the option to take on social media as a full-time job due to their lack of knowledge and intellect. We are even seeing a rise in people not completing their education, just moving to social media.

Assessing the pros and cons of technology, what’s your opinion? Is technology making people smarter or is it really just a massive destructor of intellectual knowledge?