People Are Getting Overly Dependent on Technology

Running head: IS IT BECOMING OUR PRIMARY NECESSITY? 1 Is information technology becoming the primary necessity of our existence; as we are getting dependent on it? Raisa Sadat Sharmin Brac University IS IT BECOMING THE PRIMARY NECESSITY OF OUR LIFE? 2 Abstract This paper explores four published articles that surveys and gathered information on about the usage of information technology. the articles, however gives various data about the statistics of using internet from different groups of peoples. Another reflected the development of Google within last ten years, and also about the expenditure on information technology. One of the article deals with the facts that young students are addicted towards sexting. And lastly one paper deals with the decrease of printed materials. In fact this paper is a research work on the dependency and independency of humans on the information technology. IS IT BECOMING OUR PRIMARY NECESSITY? 3 Is information technology becoming the primary necessity of our existence; as we are getting dependent on it? â€Å"Could you please hurry up? I’m getting late† a customer in a renowned super shop is becoming restless due to the long queue in the payment desk. But what happened? Why has everything halted suddenly? It was just a case of system failure, which stopped all the works inside the shop and the cashier was unable to make the bills, as the bar code reader and all other software were not responding. As a result, the waiting list got longer and created chaos inside the shop. Look, how such a simple system failure is creating so much of distraction in our life. The above situation was just an example from a super shop, but it is not the only thing based on information technology. In fact, most of the things in our country are now based on information technology. Even if the world recognizes Bangladesh to be a poor, developing country with many people living below the poverty line, the usage of technology is considerably high. In a report published in Internet world statistics, the author (2010) stated that the number of mobile phone usage increased from 100,000 to 995,560 with the rate expanding from 0. 1% to 0. 6%, during 2000 to 2010. Nowadays, cellular phone usage has become very common amongst the lower class in our country. Also offices and stores are relying on technology for storing their records and dealings. Moreover, students have become dependent on the Internet for searching essential information. Why are we using this information technology? Because these technology makes our life easier, for example it enables us to communicate with others at a distance within a second, IM and video conferencing are allowing us to be in touch with our relatives staying abroad, and that also for free; only the line rent is enough to let us exchange few words with our relatives. In addition information on the Internet are allowing us to get updates in a matter of seconds. Even if it is providing us with ample benefits, it is giving rise to dependency. I strongly believe that people are getting over dependent on technology, as these facilities are making us inefficient in manual work procedure, handicapped without technology, and it is also becoming a main reason for wastage of money in the case of the young generations, though IT is providing us a less time consuming lifestyle, low cost communicating facility and a digital way of refreshment. IS IT BECOMING OUR PRIMARY NECESSITY? 4 Just recall the previous times, when we were not touched by the digital life system; what happened in that time? Students did not got any help from the internet for their assignments, in spite of that they did their assignments and other works, they were not thrown out of the institutes for getting bad grades. Scientists, doctors, engineers were born previously; they also did their research works, as well as new inventions. They worked hard, without looking for something simpler they went through the printed books, to gather information for themselves; but nowadays students cannot even think of doing their papers without the help of the technology, they are becoming inefficient to go through the manual working procedure. As time changes, we are getting new technologies to improve our lifestyle, as for example, now assignments, projects and other brainstorming works are easier today. Just type the word and click to search anything about the related topic in Google (the most efficient search engine). According to Dingle (2010), Google did a revolution in the business sector by starting its journey of giving free service to search information in its sites, and day-by-day Google is expanding its services. Google obviously makes our life easier, and that is why students tend to rely upon it for their academic purpose. Zillien and Hargittai (2009) did a survey on different types of Internet usage on the various classes of people in the society; the most common usage amongst all the group of peoples was email and search engine usage. From higher class to lower class, everyone is dependent on Google, as almost 86% of the sample replies to it, and above 90% responds to the email usage. Karen et al. (2010), says students are getting dependent on the electronic and search engine sources mostly within 1996 to 1999, as between those years, the number of printing sources like books decreases. All these experts are telling us about the efficiency of IT in our lives, where we are actually becoming more inefficient. Most of the companies and offices are using IT to maintain all their documents, records and dealings. They said that IT is helping them to maintain all the complex works in a simpler way. For example, Apollo Hospital is a worldwide chain hospital, which has opened in to our country recently. An employee of the hospital was asked about the system maintenance of the hospital, and he answered that from the appointment to pharmacy billing, every single thing are maintained by the IT system. They have interred linkage within the computers throughout the hospital, and everything is monitored centrally. All the patients and staff have got different ID IS IT BECOMING OUR PRIMARY NECESSITY? 5 numbers and servers where all information about them is saved. Then the question arises, what would happen if the system fails for one day? The employee become silent, and says we cannot even think the system failure for one hour, and it is impossible to run a day without these systems. The employee was also asked whether there is manual system, in case of emergency in the hospital, he says no; by chance if there is any system failure, nothing can run on that building, patients would have to wait for getting prescription as well as their appointment. He also said that, â€Å"we are handicapped without technology†, as they cannot perform any of the action without computers. Though IT allows them to maintain all the things very swiftly, it also makes them to be dependent o it. The most surprising fact is that, humans invent technology, and now they cannot proceed without the technologies. Nowadays, almost every people confess his or her dependency on IT, while in a survey people of different ages were asked about this dependency, and according to the figure 7, 62. 5% of the people said that they are dependent on the information technology; and figure 5 says that 100% of the people cannot imagine themselves without their cell phone or laptop. So, we can say that IT is making us handicapped, as often we cannot work on their unavailability. The young generations of today are now up to date with all the latest technology available. They are getting dependent, and wasting money to buy different gadgets. Dingle (2010) gathers information from the research firm Gartner, where the author found that Global IT has spent US$1,4 trillion, from where a huge amount of money went for both hardware and software, which in turn helps us by increasing the availability of computers in almost every corner of our lives. We are progressing, and new inventions are coming everyday; companies like Apple, Nokia, Blackberry and etc. are contributing a lot to serve the necessity of the young generations. Dingle (2010) cites the research of Gartner who expects that the customers will spend quiet about US$6 billion to get mobile applications. Teenagers and also adults are now using huge amount of money to satisfy their hunger for getting latest technology. As in figure 5, while in a survey, 96. 7% people said that they spend money on IT, whereas only 3. 3% said that they do not spend money for the usage. Many students, who lives abroad, works for hours to receive extra payments, by which they can fulfill their needs. All this factors are pointing out that IS IT BECOMING OUR PRIMARY NECESSITY? 6 our young generations are getting dedicated towards the IT, and wasting lots of money to get their needs. Computer invention is believed as a revolution in world, it was made for human beings, to make their life easier, faster and more comfortable. Many people believed that before we wasted most of our times by being in a manual system, where as those works can be done within a moment. From figure 7, we can see that 76% of the people said that information technology is making our life easier and faster. Students from different universities and institutes say that without information technology it would be much harder for them to complete the assignments and other research works. These technology are allowing them to communicate experts throughout the worldwide, whenever they need they can go to the web sites and gather their required information. The students argued that, they have lots of works to do, for which they need to be multi tasking. And information technology is giving them a route to be successful in their live. But if we consider about the ancient times, people were also successful at that times, scientists, engineers, researchers also did their challengeable jobs at those times. Without the help information technology, they did work hard and become successful in their lives. Again students said that on that time, life was not that much competitive, and for this current and present situation no one can work without the help of IT. While aged peoples said that, young generations do not want to work harder as they can get anything they want within a second. Nowadays it is familiar to get everything done by sitting in a computer, even products can be ordered in internet, so our young generation is becoming lazy and inefficient because of IT. From Figure1 we can see that, 64% of the people surveyed says that information technology is making us inefficient. What is the use of that life, which is making us unproductive to work of our own? â€Å"Time and tides wait for none†, especially in this competitive world of ours, we cannot even think about wasting a single second from our lives. Everyone is in the struggle to do well in their life and in order to get establish, people are getting away from their close ones, sometimes they are going abroad to study or for job. Information technology helps us to communicate with our loved ones from a long distance, and that is also with a very lower cost. Facebook, twitter, all other IM and video conferencing services do not even let us to feel that we are away from our IS IT BECOMING OUR PRIMARY NECESSITY? 7 connections. Though it is letting us to communicate freely, it is also hampering teenagers and even the adults. Corbett (2009) concludes the popularity of cell phone amongst the teenagers and young adults. A survey conducted by the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA) amongst 2000 teens, were found that, their parents gave them mobile phone for their safety, and specially to be in contact with the teens while they are out of their house. But quiet about 57% of the teenagers said that they use cell phone to communicate with their friends. Not only that, the awesome features of taking pictures in cell phone and uploading instantly in Facebook or Twitter is quiet famous among them. Text message and multimedia message are also a very popular way of communicating with peers. Corbett (2009), says about â€Å"sexting†, that is, while in a relation, girls send their nude pictures to their boyfriends, and after they break up, the boy upload those pictures on the internet, and in this way teenagers are affected by the impact of technologies. Usually it is seen that, adolescents use IT for most of their works, most of them are unaware of the intentions of their friends, and this is how IT is affecting our teenagers and adults. Lastly, adults and teenagers cannot even think of themselves without their mobile, computers, and all other entertaining devices. They believe that, life is becoming so busy, they did not get extra time to communicate with others, and there are also no extra time to play outdoor games, or to hangout with friends randomly. As from Figure 3, we can see that 75% of the people says that they use IT also for their personal purpose rather than academic or officials, and in Figure 4, 82. 5% people said that in this current situation IT is needed in every step of our life. Due to the lack of time, most of the peoples are now relying on the digital form of entertainment. As I have mentioned above that, students are willing to spend money for buying gadgets for them. Movies, games music is now considered as a form of entertainment. Students are found to do chatting in messenger, while they are in class. In order to get all this facilities they often buy expensive mobile phones. Many people believe that this way of communication is decreasing the intimacy and values between ones relation. Expenditure on the technologies is increasing, which in fact is reducing the development of all other sectors. For example, Bangladesh is a poor country, we have an unequal distribution of wealth, many times higher class people supports the lower class peoples for their survival. But as they are now up to new technologies everyday, they are spending much money for their own. Even the students and IS IT BECOMING OUR PRIMARY NECESSITY? 8 workers in abroad, they work hard to get all the latest inventions, they are not concern about their future, instead of saving money for themselves they are wasting money by buying devices. We really feel proud to be Bangladeshi, after a long struggle, we became independent, and only within a age of 40 years we developed a lot. May be the development is much less compared to the outside world, but we cannot deny that we recovered a lot. Most of the companies and systems in our country, rather than the public ones are running with the help of information technology. So, I think that IT is taking over humans, by working more efficiently, making us â€Å"handicapped† and also because we love to spend money for it, though it needed in our life for less time consuming lifestyle, for giving more options for interacting on the go, and also for our recreations. Small stores to big ones are using IT for their convenience; according to the example mentioned earlier IT can also create chaos for us. Human being can be rectified with in a moment, but a system failure cannot be adjust within a few seconds. We need time to fix certain types of error. So we can use IT for our convenience, but there should be an alternative for a system failure. If the super shop had a manual operating system, then that would not cause that much harm to them. Also IT is hampering our young generations, while asking the solution of this problem, 17% people answered that there should be more restrictions on the teenagers, and 83% says that there should not be any misuse of technology, this results are shown in Figure 10. We invented information technology, and it is for our convenience. Human being are considered as the most prominent creation of God, no other thing can be compared with us, but all the above research and survey says that people are now getting inefficient. So I think people should use IT, but should not be that much dependent on it that it will be making them handicapped when there are no facility of IT. We should not consider ourselves incapable of doing any work that IT can do for us, it is us who makes computers, and no computer can work like humans. IS IT BECOMING OUR PRIMARY NECESSITY? 9 Reference list: Corbett, Don. (2009. ) â€Å"Let’s talk about sext: the challenge of finding the right legal response to the teenage practice of â€Å"sexting†. Journal of Internet Law 13, no. 6: 3-8. Business Source Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed March 20, 2011). Internet world statistics (2011) from (http://www. internetworldstats. com/asia/bd. htm). Retrieved: 20th march, 2011. Naufel, Karen Z. , Katherine E. Briley, Lacey K. Harackiewicz, Amanda S. Johnson, Kristin P. Marzec, and Michael E. Nielsen. (2010. ) â€Å"How do Psychology Students Use Web-Based Information? Trends and Implications from a Descriptive Study. † North American Journal of Psychology 12, no. 1: 1-14. Academic Source Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed March 20, 2011). Zillion N. and Hargittai E. (2009) â€Å"Digital distinction : Status-Specific types of internet usage† Social Science Quarterly, 90, 284. Dingle S. (2010) â€Å"Clean state† Finweek 14-19. Sample questionnaire: Name: _______________________________ Sex: ____________ Age: ____________ 1. Do you support or like the invention of information technology for communicating? a. Yes- its excellent b. Yes – its good c. Yes – its needed d. Yes- but it is making us inefficient e. No – it is not needed 2. How many times do you use your mobile, email or browser in a day? a. Never b. 1-5 times c. 6-10 times d. 11-15 times e. More than above 3. Do you use technology only for official or academic purpose? a. Yes b. No 4. Do you agree that, in this stage of life we need information technology in every step? a. Strongly agree b. Agree c. Neutral d. Disagree e. Strongly disagree 5. Do you think that it is necessary to spend money for on the use of information technology? a. Yes b. No 6. Can you imagine yourself without your cell phone or laptop? a. Yes b. No c. No comment 7. What is your opinion about the contribution of information technology in our daily life? ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ______________________ 8. Do you think that you are getting overly dependent of this technology? ———————————————— ____________________________________________________________ __________ 9. In your point of view, what are the impacts of information technology that are affecting our society and the young generations? ____________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ____ ______________________ 10. Give your suggestion regarding the issue of getting dependent and other impacts of information technology. ____________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ _____________________ Thank you for your participation and cooperation Survey result 1. Do you support or like the invention of information technology for communicating? FIGURE: 1 2. How many times do you use your mobile, email or browser in a day? FIGURE: 2 3. Do you use technology only for official or academic purpose? FIGURE: 3 4. Do you agree that, in this stage of life we need information technology in every step? FIGURE: 4 5. Do you think that it is necessary to spend money for on the use of information technology? FIGURE: 5 6. Can you imagine yourself without your cell phone or laptop? FIGURE: 6 7. What is your opinion about the contribution of information technology in our daily life? FIGURE: 7 8. Do you think you are getting overly dependent on this technology? FIGURE: 8 9. In your point of view, what are the impacts of information technology that are affecting our society and the young generations? FIGURE: 9 10. Give your suggestion regarding the issue of getting dependent and other impacts of information technology. FIGURE: 10