Do we control technology or is technology controlling us?

You open google maps and follow the given instructions in order to get to your desired destination. Your arm is out, your back is hunched, and your face is glued onto the screen as youblissfullystroll. Your sourceofinformation,which brings you to thesevery actionsperformed, is a smartphone. You walk as a robot would and the smartphone has merely acted upon being a replacement foryour brain. Long ago, people would look out for landmarks and stars to find their way, using their minds and nature as reliable sources, but now one smartphone and a garrulous robot talking through it will do just the trick.

The abundance of technology is,without a doubt,controlling us, butonlybecause we simplyallow it to.Technology may not necessarilybeassisting our goals, but rather we may be assisting the goals of our technology.Depending on your perception, technology can be seen as either accommodatingand convenient, harmful, or both. Whatever this perception may be for you, we canallagree that its convenience has made our peculiar species consumeand createtechnologyrapidly, enhancing ourdependencyon it.Firstly, if we take a look at businesses in general, including the very business of your school or your child’s school, where would themultitudebe without technology?Theaverage person,ontypical business days, makeuse of their cell phones100 times a day,which will strikemost of us as anappalling amount. Now, although this instant communication is convenient, should interpersonal communication be anything close to a rarity?

Besides businesses,who practically devoursmartphonesand dedicate their intellect to google, social media users (including the majority ofteenagers)are gradually but surely disrupting and distracting themselves with grim handheld devices.Not only do commonly usedsocial mediassuch as Instagram negatively affect our mental health for obvious reasons, but many other applications contribute to other negative aspects. There are existing social media apps which tell us whatwe should do at any given moment and whatit is that we are feeling, diminishingour self-awareness as well as our ability to think for ourselves.

Besides this socialinteraction, technology has expanded to the point where artificial intelligence is seen to be a major threat. Was it not the human society who were seen to bethe only species withgreatabilities? Why hand those abilities to technology?Manufacturing robots, self-driving cars,as well associal media monitoring, may all seem to be very

intriguing, convenient, and obliging, but these are robotics thatare in possession of advanced intelligence. They carry the ability to think, just as we do, so one could say that this is potential, balefulharm to the human society. The idea that we may be merely overtaken by robotics,whichenable human capacities,seems hardly more than indolencefrom us. Some may argue that artificial intelligence improves the quality of lifeby making tasks effortlessas this technology simulates human behavior, but wherewill our effort go? Will weevenrun errands with this forsaken effort when we can simply press a few buttons for grocery shopping,or will we solely recline on our couches for the entirety our lives?

It is easy to saythat we are overly dependent on instant communication, instant access, or anything mildly entertaining. With no doubt has technology saved timeand effort,but humans have lived for millions of years without technology, interacting with one another and nature. I amnot one to conclude where it lies in the ethical realms, nor am I one who candecide for myself whether it is good or bad, but I find that it is best to reflect on where this technology journey is taking us. When was the last time you were asked to hang out instead ofreceiving atextasking this? When was the last time you sent someone a birthday card instead of simply messaging them? When was the last time you interacted with the kind strangers in a waiting room instead of scrolling through the same mind-numbingapplications? We are provided with this false sense that we are the ones who are being served from all of this technology and that we are in complete authority, but is the matter really that we are controlling technology if it has the ability to alter our human behaviorsand changeour society as a whole?Rather than leaving this decision aside, why not spend a brief moment to decide upon what you feel technology is doing, both to you andtoyour surroundings. It is merely your personal decision to decide on whether you feel as though the technology evolution is progress or regress. We, asmembers of the same society, have to make significant choices that we did not have to make before.

-Ciara McGarry