Technology: Boon or Bane?

Technology: Boon or Bane?

By Dr Arvind Kumar

Undoubtedly technology has transformed the way we live and has been helpful in unraveling nature’s secrets, at the same time excess or irrational use of technology is proving a bane as well. Rapid proliferation of automobiles, without rational planning, has added to congestion of traffic and air pollution at an enormous rate. Instead of depending on mass transport system, clamour for owning individual car has resulted in building highways, off-ramps, parking lots, etc.—each replacing countless eco-systems. While opting for electronic gadgets, we have seldom cared for devising means for managing or recycling electronic waste. The non-recyclable components of a single computer may contain almost 2 kilograms of lead. Seventy percent of the entire toxic waste stream of landfills is e-waste. We have social media but we're sacrificing social skills. According to Lewis Mumford, "With the present means of long distance mass communication, sprawling isolation has proved an even more effective method of keeping a population under control, henceforth a one-way world."

While the developed world quenches its insatiable thirst for the newest and latest gizmo, much of the subsequent e-waste is exported to countries like India, China, Pakistan, Nigeria, and Ghana. Kim Schoppink, Toxics Campaigner at Greenpeace, says, "The pollution and related health problems in countries where e-waste is dumped will increase massively as the amount of electronics used worldwide is growing exponentially and the number of countries used as dump sites will grow." In other words, excess and irrational use of technology has made it more of a bane for humanity.