The world is improving its digitalizing every single day. Some of the effects this causes are clearly and almost immediately visible; others are neglected and cause a great disadvantage for a few groups of the current society. This is one of the main reasons my question remains: should we digitalize every process a human could do?
In my opinion, we should be careful with such power. We should think of the people we would disadvantage, and the lives we will change. Even though there are huge positive and negative points, my preference still lies by the humans instead of the computers, and I’ll tell you why.
Picture this: you are an old lady (from before the war) who doesn’t own a lot of money. Because of this lack of money, choices had to be made during the time computers were in the uprising. All of your children are living on their own, so it is just you and your husband. At this time, owning a computer doesn’t have the highest priority, food does. Years go by, and this computer never entered the house.Right now, this old lady is in the Albert Heijn. The queue is enormous, and she desperately needs to rest her feet. Envious she looks to the left, where people who use the “self checkout” can pay without waiting. The only thought that crosses her mind was “What if…”
This is a good example of problems older people struggle with every day. Because of several reasons, they stayed behind in the much simpler days, without technology.
This gives them a huge disadvantage these days. The younger generation is mobile. They can apply for a job in another country and start a life there, without getting disconnected from friends and family. This is not even imaginable for the elderly. According to them, mobile phones are normal phones that got disconnected from their base and computers are incomprehensible. So there is no cheap way of communicating with children, grandchildren and friends. They will become isolated and lonely.
Even though the elderly play a big role in my opinion about this question, they are not the only source of my concerns. I’m also pretty worried about the current generation. Everywhere you look, people communicate through their phones, even when standing next to each other. There are no random conversations in the train, talking to people while taking a walk or meeting friends to just chat and catch up. Everything can be replaced by technology; quick questions via Whatsapp, finding which train to take via the internet and sharing your misery on Facebook. All of this leads to an arrogant and self consuming society, where everyone takes everything for granted. If we keep on replacing the humans for technology, humanly contact will decrease even more and may even become extinct.
One should also keep in mind that replacing humans for computers means a lot of jobs will get lost. All of these people will need new jobs, or will claim a settlement from the government. There will be a high unemployment rate and there is no way to collect enough money to support a family.
On the other side, there are positive sides on digitalizing human processes. One big plus is the human error. Technology won’t make errors, unless it is told to do so. This will decrease the amount of frustration a human could have, and make our lives a lot easier. Another big plus is the knowledge a computer has. It won’t take years to learn something, because someone can program a computer to know stuff. This immediately leads to a faster work process, which would mean less money for the company.
In the end, it always comes down to your own opinion. But if you compare the positive to the negative points, right now there are clearly more negative points than positive, and not only in this essay but in general. It is important to keep in mind that not everyone will benefit from digitalization; a part of society will even suffer from it. I do not believe society is ready to close their eyes, so digitalization will be a long shot. What I do believe, is that computers will keep on increasing in importance. Even today, we can’t picture a life without computers and technology around us. I hope we’ll keep on trying to communicate with each other outside the technology. After all, when it comes down to it, I’m not ready to be ruled by computers, are you?
