Is Technology Overrated?

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Many have pondered every now and then about technology taking over our lives or about how much reliant we are becoming on it but surely, technology isn’t bad, right? I mean, all it does is facilitate us in our work or day-to-day tasks, no? Even if we are a bit excessive in our use of it, it doesn’t mean that we are becoming slaves to it, isn’t it so? Besides, all I have is a tablet, a laptop, a custom built PC and a mid-range smartphone.

People complain about all sorts of problems from laziness to weakening eyesight or wrist strain injuries, however I have yet to experience any of these. My eyes were naturally weak and it’s a known fact that as we advance in our years, our eyesight is bound to take a toll; given that our eyes are open almost 10 to 15 hours daily. Wrist strain injuries develop (as the name implies) when you strain your wrist too much. In the comfort of my bed, with a pillow behind my back while I sit with a laptop on my lap (pun-intended), typing away merrily, I cannot even comprehend how people manage to strain their wrists doing such a simple task. When I use the PC, I sit on a flexi-chair which lets me lean back and enjoy my work (or play; usually play!). There is no risk of any injury or harm to befall me. There are (frequent, I repeat; frequent) occasions when I lean in the other direction, towards the oh-so-beautiful high-definition monitor, to increase my focus on either escaping or fighting the little critters that are hell bent on killing my character. It really is a doozy to watch their futile and sometimes (read as “most times”) successful attempts as I lay waste to wave after wave of enemies only to “disappear” off of their radar. As far as laziness is concerned, I do my fair share of exercise when I go out to buy groceries or when I go to the university or when I visit my cousins on weekends to play football with them (and then some Fifa).

I tell you, technology really has no problems. The people who say that technology is only doing us more damage than welfare are looneys; looneys, I say! Do they not even know that without technology there would be no social networks leaving no way for people to interact and share their creativity. How horrible would it be for one to have to manually read through an encyclopedia just to find that one item of interest? How terrible would it be if I couldn’t know about the views of hundreds of people about a restaurant that I wanted to dine in? As if that weren’t enough, would it be easy if you had to move around your office like a busy bee only to communicate with a few persons of interest here and there? And..and.. what if you could not talk to your uncle/aunt/brother/sister living abroad? I daresay this would only make our lives more miserable.
How do they manage to be advocates of such preposterous ideas when they themselves use smartphones to communicate and e-commerce stores (Amazon, Daraz.pk, Kaymu, HomeShopping etc.) to make purchases? Do they not use technology when they are curious and want to learn about something? Are they not guilty of asking Siri about why the chicken crossed the road?

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I do accept that there are problems; but not with technology. The problems lie in the people who use technology. What people fail to understand are some pretty simple basics to interacting with technology. Technology is only a time-soak if you let it be so. With technology everything is so… effortless, though to be honest even that effortlessness requires quite a bit of effort.

Now it is time we must part ways dear readers. So, I leave it for you to decide if technology really is overrated or not.