The good thing about being a millennial child is that we experienced a time before technology and a time after technology conquered our lives. Still, it seems forever ago we were having a wholehearted conversation with our parents or a fun game of hiding and seek with our siblings.
The dynamics of human-society interaction have changed widely and artificial intelligence is a big part of this change. They analyze and store information about our needs using big data and keep facilitating and simplifying our lives until needs are becoming wants and capitalists can earn millions and dominate us.
Right now everything is online. From birthday wishes, anniversary celebrations to funerals. The pandemic has played a major role in this radical change. Nobody has to leave the house; nobody has to waste a breath. There is no need for any sort of touch and feel communication anymore. You are one click away from getting that digital marketing course you wanted to take, or that MBA degree you wanted to pursue. The need for movement, effort, or the basic necessity of applying your brain to solving a math problem is eliminated by technology. We have got Artificial Intelligence doing all these things for us.
But technology has become counterproductive and has contributed to reduced cognitive abilities in human beings and increased the time spent on digital gadgets. This has caused a rise in mental health issues including depression, anxiety, and suicide.
A child growing in a technological era spends their average time online, which eventually erodes the brain and affects their creative thinking abilities. Also, validation from social media has become an important factor in today’s lifestyle. People are so addicted to this image everybody creates for themselves in social media that anybody who fails to accomplish themselves as successful online start developing low self-esteem and face criticism. There is a push to be productive all the time, which takes a toll on your emotional health.
The invention of new technology and improvised machine language will deteriorate the differences between a human and a machine. It is no more a medium of assistance for human beings. The machine and its creators are able to read our minds and manipulate our emotions and decide whether we should have social engagements or not. This problem cannot be solved by technology.
A good example of this is the invention of electronic books. It has depreciated the traditional library and live experience of reading. Reading habits are so important to sharpen our minds. Staring at the screen causes strain and damages the eyes. This will reduce the time people spend on reading. A library is also a place for people with similar minds to gather and discuss their thoughts and interact.
Similarly, there are innovative technologies that help you walk without actually walking, ready for you, talk to you so that you don’t need actual human interaction, write homework for you, and what else. All these innovations have made us lazy, less hard-working, and unhealthy.
Humans are social animals and technology is creating a barrier between basic human-nature interaction. It has built a new world for us to live in but that will only rise to replace the existing world. The children growing up are accustomed to meeting the needs of these technological benchmarks and are given education on this basis. There is no room for artists or writers or revolutionaries in the future.
They need people to build and learn the language of software that eventually is going to be the reason for endangering our lives. We have stopped evolving and our brains have stopped imagining. We are turning into machines, while the machines are learning how to be humans.