Life Amid Modern Technology

CEBU, Philippines — Technology has no doubt become a driving force in human life these days. Industries have taken advantage of modern technological tools and equipment to increase productivity and profitability. Government has also adopted modern technology in its functions, from speedy delivery of public information to quick response to calamities and disaster to law enforcement and monitoring peace and order.

Among private individuals, modern technology has made life better and more exciting. Nowadays, people from different hemispheres communicate like next-door neighbors, in real time. Home chores can now be done by appliances, quickly and more efficiently, to the great relief of house residents who used to do it themselves manually.

Truth is, people’s affinity to technology is nothing new. Modern technology is simply an advancement of old technology. Only that the technological advancement these past years has been quite “too much in too short time” – at least that’s what it seems to people who’d seen a more laidback era.

The older generation is bewildered. To them, modern life is just going too fast with all these digital gadgets that continue to get sophisticated day after day. They find it hard to keep pace – and harder to find time to just relax and savor the moments like they used to.

Parents are getting worried over the increasingly utilitarian and materialistic attitude of their young children. Young people are thought to be more interested in acquiring things than in experiencing them. Older people are alarmed that humans, in general, the young are more and more becoming like machines.

But the young ones like the prevalence of modern technology – especially modern digital technology – in their lives. They celebrate the power it gives them. They can be virtually omnipotent with the gadgets they hold in their hands. They get to know what’s happening anywhere in the world with just a click of a finger.

Today teenagers sneer at elders that caution them to “slow down.” The world has opened up and there’s so much to explore. To them, it’s party time!

As there’s no way to stop the planet from turning, it’s impossible to keep things from changing. The challenge for the human race is to keep its balance in a continually changing world. The old shall learn to adapt; while the young shall learn temperance.

Where the change is good, people shall enjoy it. Where the change is bad, they shall find ways to contain it. It won’t work to try to cling to the past. It won’t work either to simply let things be.

Technological innovation is the product of human effort to break known limits. It is human nature to seek progress. And life has a lot of room for that.

Most people are bewildered by the spate of technological innovations in the past several years. And yet this is not the ultimate of what’s possible, for sure. It’s most likely that there’s more to come.

Thus, everyone – young and old – needs to be thoughtful in dealing with technology that’s here now. Neither to be stumped by it nor to excessively indulge in it.