<p>Technology is inherently neutral. It can only be used for beneficial and detrimental ends by people. It used to be that only the insanely wealthy could travel, now with current technology even poor college kids can get cheap coach tickets and backpack through Europe. Not to mention the medical advances that technology brings, how it simplifies many tasks, the scientific applications of technology, and just the greater global awareness that easy communication can bring. While technology itself is neutral, I’d say people use it mostly for beneficial or neutral ends.</p>
<p>Okay then, delicious.</p>
<p>I agree with Earil. Technology’s neutral and inevitable, but its main purpose is to advance humankind’s abilities.</p>
<p>While technology may be neutral, it’s effects aren’t.
Text-messaging is neutral, but the influences it’s had with our generation isn’t hard to see. People used to meet face to face with the person they wanted to talk to, not sit in their room with the fan, lights, and tv on while they pushed tiny buttons on a pad to converse such inconsequential dribble as, “LOLZ I thnk its gr8.”
Time used to be spent outside with the world and friends. Now, it’s spent with inauthentic relationships with people we don’t really even like and indoors, away from all forms of nature.
It is my belief that the negative effects of technology have led us as human beings to become detached from the world and the people around us.</p>
<p>Are you saying, then, that technology’s benefits don’t outweigh its cons? One must remember that without advanced technology, our society would be entirely agriculture-based, incapable of the foreign connections that we have today, incapable of the range and size of economy we have today, plague-ridden, possibly draught and famine ridden, and such advancements as space travel would be impossibilities. So all of that doesn’t outweigh a little bit of isolation? </p>
<p>I would rather have text-messaging than cholera or Spanish influenza, myself, but I suppose that’s a personal choice.</p>
<p>Donny, these effects aren’t hard to override. Just don’t get a cell phone or texting on your cell phone plan. Call people instead, or get on your bike and go visit them</p>
<p>I’m no Luddite, but rather, i think that technology is more likely to be harmful than beneficial, you mentioned the advancements of medicine. Like all things, it must be used responsibly and in moderation, or we will become its slave, which we may already have but I don’t believe so.</p>
<p>How is technology more harmful than beneficial? Technology is what allowed mankind to dominate our planet in the first place. The first humans used weapons to rise above their fellow beasts; would you rather that we had stayed in the treetops and been slaves to our native ecosystem?</p>
<p>It may not be a beneficient power, but man’s power has benefitted him by 1) allowing him to spread and multiply, 2) by allowing him to make discoveries that further his longevity, 3) by making him more secure in his dominance over other species. Nature’s all about dominance, and so is technology (look at the Arms Races of the past).</p>
<p>Once again, we have different connotations of the same word. I know that technology is used broadly to refer to all tools used by man, but if you use the word “technology” today, a person is more likely to think of the iphone before they think of a hammer.</p>
<p>So what? Technology is technology; a tool is a tool. Hammers and Iphones both contribute to human comfort and to human advancement. We’re not just talking about frivolous technology; we’re talking about all technology.</p>
<p>yes but it is all technology. connotations see porna!
how about we start defining what we mean??
and you talk about people sitting around and texting. but here you are discussing with strangers, indoors, on a piece of technology.</p>
<p>I think we can all agree that the very broad definition of technology is necessary to human development. What I’m talking about is what I guess we can call “leisure technology,” which I feel is more detrimental than beneficial to mankind.</p>
<p>Well, everyone else seems to agree that we’re debating about technology as a whole. Hudson seems to think that we’re only debating about the selective forms of technology that he can use to support his argument.</p>
<p>Edit: Ah-ha, but you didn’t say “leisure technology” when you started this, now did you. You said “technology”, as in ALL technology.</p>
<p>I have no problem with this type of interaction by way of technology, cira. We are a group talking about a topic that we have differing opinions on. Nothing we’re doing is making us dumber or lazier.</p>
<p>and ahem CIRA. what am i chopped liver.</p>
<p>Then how is a girl texting her sister across the state “lazier” or “dumber”? How is a cell phone used in place of a regular phone “stupider”? Why can’t people use new technology to communicate and not be as “active” as their snail-mail-using ancestors? New technology facilitates communication, which in turn INCREASES efficiency.</p>
<p>porna, this isn’t a race or competition, we’re just talking, Lighten up.
I’m sorry I didn’t clearly lay out my position when we started talking, really this thread is the first place where I’ve bounced off these opinions off of other people. From our countless other debates, I’ve learned alot and changed my opinions. So once again, no need for the fangs.</p>
<p>the taser is in the mail porna.
and like seriously, we have nicknames like porna and elmo. chill there is not trophy for this. just enlightenment or something worth while like that.</p>
<p>“I have no problem with this type of interaction by way of technology, cira. We are a group talking about a topic that we have differing opinions on. Nothing we’re doing is making us dumber or lazier.” </p>
<p>Could you explain yourself? I don’t get what you mean.</p>
<p>I meant to say mls, not cira. I thought you were here for some reason, earil. (:</p>
<p>(sorry for the delay; my Internet’s being wonky)</p>
<p>Of course it’s a competition; it’s a debate. Debates are to be won or lost by better proving of a statement. (mind you, I’m in Debate Club, so the “intramural” aspect of debating is wasted on me) Anyway, I apologize for myself, but I’m not bound to stop her any time soon.</p>