With the recent expansion of Internet, social media and communication, which has reached a point where pretty, much anything is nowadays accessible with the simple touch of a button; Shopping, learning, working and entertainment can all be accessed from the comfort of our own homes without any efforts. Those are indeed great improvements and technology has certainly a lot to offer but this is also coming at a price; and a relatively crucial one as it is also affecting our Health and Culture… our very own way of life.
What technology brought in our lives?
Technology has indeed improved our lives. With the help of electronic components, we are able to read books online. Even the way students learned have changed, today they do not have to go to the library to look for notes and do their research works. Sitting at home, they download reports and eBooks and they will connect with other students who have worked out on the same topic as they and today access to culture and education has never been so easy.
Earlier, you had to wait at least six months or more before watching a movie at the theater. With technology, it is no more the same. Once a movie is at the cinema, you can either watch it online (stream) or download the movie and watched it later. Be it acoustic, jazz, blues, rock, classical or whatever is your kinds of music, you can listen your favorite’s tubes through YouTube and even download it. In terms of entertainment, there are games also. Nowadays, gaming is becoming very popular and games like Candy Crush, angry bird and others are accessible anytime on our cell phones.
People used to grind lots of spices in mortar but with the mixer grinder, mothers’ in the kitchen do not have to make much effort to grind the spices. To wash clothes, women either used to go to the river or they washed clothes on a concrete rock. It is no more the case; everybody owns a washing machine nowadays. Therefore, household appliances have facilitated our lives in many ways. You want to bake a cake; hence, the oven is the remedy to bake one. Its summer and everyone feels like having something chilling, refrigerator is at our disposition.
Electronic component is not always beneficial as we think. Along with its existence, it has changes our lives drastically. Lots of issues have cropped in many lives, especially in the social life. Due to technology, many people like house maids, milkman and others have lost their jobs. Adolescents rarely communicate with their parents, neighbors; in fact, some of them do not even have friends. Problematic like isolation, hypertension, obesity, and other health diseases and family problems are sprouting.
What did it take from us?
With the arrival of technology, everyone owns a laptop and a Smartphone. With the routine life, both parents work nowadays and children rarely speak with their parents. After school, the children go to their rooms, and start surfing. Moreover, they even dine in their rooms. They do not even go out for jogging or to have fresh air, hence, to speak or remember the name of their neighbor is far away. They keep sitting in front of their screen. The weird thing is that, they will prefer to talk to a stranger through social media rather than going out and have a chat with their friends. At office we prefer to communicate through Skype or send emails instead of talking face to face to our colleagues. All those great devices that are supposed to help us to communicate are changing deeply our way of communication.
Due to the lack of communication, technology has brought a drastic change in our lives. In any society, there are different cultural groups based on particular ethnicity. Though cultures vary, yet the common components like symbol, language, values, festivals and norms make social life possible. No doubt globalization has affected our life and has turned the world into a global village. Children no more play traditional games, like hide and seek and chit-chat with their neighbors.
However, homemade food has become a very rare product in many families. Studies have shown that people prefer to have their lunch or dinner in a food courts and restaurants. People rely too much on fast food like KFC, McDonalds, Pizzas and Nando’s. Food courts like Jumbo Riche-Terre and Jumbo Phoenix are always overcrowded.
Technology has had and will keep affecting our lifestyle. With an excessive use of High Tech appliances, many adults and children as well have become obese. Remaining sitting all the in an office, will obviously affect our health. Even adults are at risks in concerned with their health. Besides playing on games and working on their laptops and computers, they do not rely on any other activities. Secondly, due to obesity, children and adults have caught diseases like diabetes, hypertension, depression, and many other diseases. Nowadays, many people have to undergo treatment due to such illness. People no more complete their eight hours of sleep. They do not have proper meal and some do not eat well. Hence, all these diseases have cropped up.
With ICT becoming the third pillar of the Mauritian economy and technologies are taking a vital role in our lives. It is oblivious that this phenomenon will increase in the forth-coming years. Yet the government is focusing mainly on questions such as economical growth and unemployment rate but considerations such has Health and Culture are not really addressed and are certainly not the main priorities. But many are seeing not only the benefits of technological advancement in Mauritius but also the destructive force it has on our way of lives. Technology will certainly influenced the way we live now and in the future but is it for the best or the worst is hard to tell.
