The issue of whether technology is a boon or a bane to today’s society is a controversial one. I have been brought up mostly in the golden age of technology and hence strongly believe that it has improved my life to a large extent for the reasons mentioned below. My stance mainly considers the consumer level technology- which includes the internet, computers, the mobile age, etc.There is a whole different area of technology in the industrialization realm, but i wont go there.

I have been fortunate to have lived in a decade where a computer was seen as an instrument only available to the highest of officials ranked in a certain top organization to proliferation of computers, more recently, into the hands, or should i say laps?, of 10th grade students with the $200 laptops. The potential that the internet offers to learn is enormous and wealth of information is literally an arms length away. Children have been able to easily discover and learn more about questions and dangling thoughts, rather than wait until going to the school the next day.WIth the growth of the internet is the growth of huge publishing stream of intelligent and informative content and info portals like Wikipedia.

Technology has allowed mankind to connect more than ever before.
It gives me and my close friends immense pleasure to live chat once in a while. This kind of happiness would unaffordable in most cases where i would have had to take a flight to visit them at home and in the process miss out on other important chores. Hence, allowing to maintain and strengthen emotional bonds.

Technology allows people to find the right “fit” for a lot of the personal services to offer. With the growth of services like Craigslist and Facebook„ advertising has gone to a whole new level. I had to hardly wait for interested people over a weekend before i posted for an available room in my house.
If i were to compare a website like Craigslist to the traditional newspaper system,its clear that the former has a hands-down win in many divisions like, personalization, turnaround time and cost, to name a few. Gone are the days when you would need to wait for a couple of days to post in the weekly neighborhood newspaper which used to drill a hole in your wallet.

On the other hand, i can resonate with folks who believe that technology deprives one of the human touch. A lot of kids these days are avoiding to go out and play and would instead sit at home surfing the internet or play video games live via Xboxs and such. This could have a terrible effect on a child’s health, interpersonal communication skills, reading ability etc, to name a few.

Although there are obvious disadvantages, these are things that that can be avoided and restricted by either supervision, for children or introspection, for grown ups. The advantages that technology offers are tremendous and i can say this with conviction because just from a personal stance,  i am more productive, happier and wealthier than i could have been without technology.