I start my day when the alarm clock in my mobile phone rings, then I switch on the light to wake myself up properly. I walk into the living room and turn on the television for the news, while brushing my teeth with my new electric toothbrush. I repeat “Siri, how’s the weather” every day when I am selecting my outfit of the day. When I’m in good mood, I turn on the radio for music while enjoying my breakfast with my expresso made by the coffee machine. After that, I switch on my computer and start typing on Microsoft word. Questions come: how much technology appears in my morning routine? What is technology? How does it benefit our lives? I hope you can find the answer in the following passage.
Before we try to discuss technology, it’s important for us to define the word “technology”. So, what is technology? Technology is the product of transferring scientific knowledge to practical use, it’s the result of people trying to find more efficient ways of doing things and testing new ideas. In the distant past when people were collecting stones in order to make tools, technology was born. The control of fire, the invention of the wheel and the development of languages are all part of technological progress, which changes our society in a significant way. Technology is the product that comes from human brains – and with our increasing knowledge, technology keeps emerging in front of us. It’s covering every path of our road, we need technology to “walk”, so as to improve.
Technology is classified into six different categories, which is communication, electricity, energy, manufacturing, medicine and transportation. Communication includes television, the internet, and mobile phone, which are normally used by almost everyone. Electricity includes the computer, circuitry, artificial intelligence (AI), software, audio and visual technology. Energy includes solar panels, wind turbines, and batteries. In medicine, it includes diagnostics, pharmaceutics, and surgery. Technology improves people’s quality of life and it pushes forward the development of human society.
Although technology is everywhere around us, there are still many different voices on the development of technology, with some saying technology brings convenience to them, which benefits the world, but with some also arguing that technology disconnects relationships between people, which is destroying the world. Everything has its good side and bad side, it’s important in the way you look at it, and whether the pros outweigh the cons or vice versa. Take an example: with a mobile phone, people have the ability to call other phones and have a conversation with people across the world. Many phones are also capable of connecting to the internet, which allows users to communicate in other ways, such as text messages or video chats. However, with the technological improvement of the phone, people’s ability to communicate face-to -face is somehow regressing. In my perspective, technology is impeccable in the way it promotes society, but the abuse and misapplication of technology can also degenerate our society. Therefore, it’s very important on how you “use” technology and the way you look at it.
Back to the beginning of this article, how many technologies can you count, and after reading this passage, did your answer change? The mobile phone as my alarm clock, the lights, the television, electric toothbrush, the AI “Siri”, radio, coffee machine, computer, and the software are all technology.
Technology is everywhere in our daily lives, and sometimes we get so used to it that we almost forget it’s technology, and that we shouldn’t be so dependent on it. Therefore, be aware of the rational application of technology, and make use of your unique innovative thinking to create the next technology.
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