For as long as the pen has been recording history, mankind has been plagued with problems in some form or the other. In the last 3 centuries, we have seen exponential growth in the world of science and developments that have taken care of most of the technical issues that have arisen in recent times. However, many social issues remain. When there is no uniformity of values or perspective, a divide is bound to appear, and the classification of humans into different groups is inevitable. In some cases, these classifications have made administration easier, but a lot of instances have created social issues like racism, financial injustices, and imbalance of opportunity. These are long-standing issues that are common to many societies.
Technology, however, has had a huge impact in tackling these issues, and today, we’ll be looking at how we’re benefitting from the technology that we’ve at hand in tackling all sorts of issues.
1. Racism
The modern world is divided into different nations with different ideologies and cultures. Due to different climates in different areas, the appearances of people differ and become the causes of discrimination. However, the most famous example of racism is the discrimination against people of color, particularly people of African origin. The recent ‘Black Lives Matter movement is a huge wake-up call towards the discrimination that othered groups/races face. With recent movements like these, systemic oppression is being exposed. A lot of things are being re-evaluated, particularly our speech, where now any form of hurtful, racist slurs has become unacceptable. Applications like Nextdoor have now stepped in to educate the masses. Racism on Nextdoor is promptly highlighted in anything you’ve written, helping you make any statement that you make acceptable to all communities.
Many of the injustices done to minorities in a certain country never came to light because, of course, they were not done in the presence of many witnesses. With every person in possession of a smartphone, a lot of these frequent injustices have come forward as documented evidence for the world to see. This phenomenon has helped educate and radically bring change in the global perception, generally towards the better.
2. Eradicating Disease
In poverty-stricken countries especially in Africa, a lot of people remain devoid of basic healthcare facilities. Where the rest of the world is far ahead in eradicating diseases like polio, a lot of third-world countries still suffer from it. However, technology has made registering and tracking citizens a much more efficient process to help the relevant government officials of the country model areas with the greatest outbreak and help them in effective decision-making. Technology like smartphones has played a vital role in educating the masses and convincing them to take the recommended measures for their safety.
Covid-19 is an ongoing pandemic, and the availability of technology only has helped the profession of science gather new data of its variants and then forward it on the available platforms to educate people globally. This information has been very valuable in helping governments formulate SOPs to prevent its rapid spread.
3. Food and Hunger
Technology has greatly impacted the way we grow our food. Agriculture greatly depends on the yield of crops, and with newer technology, the yields have significantly increased. Newer farming methods have enabled us to grow and harvest more food. Technology has enabled us to monitor crop health closely. It has helped regulate the amount of raw material we give to the crops to the ideal amount. With these techniques, we can reduce a lot of potential waste and produce enough to export and feed the less privileged.
4. Electric Power
A lot of the developed part of the world was able to rapidly develop by harnessing electricity. However, not every country had the resources to use fossil fuels to generate electric power, and due to the high cost, not every citizen was able to get electricity. With cleaner and greener alternatives to generating electricity, many rural areas now have electricity and have evened out the playing field on the global platform for development. It has generated a lot of learning opportunities at schools and has certainly helped improve lifestyles.
5. Economic Activity
For many years, many countries termed as ‘Third-World’ have been stuck back in time due to a lack of opportunities and the required knowledge. The internet has played a considerable role in changing this trend. It has created equality of opportunity for every person equally with widespread knowledge. The internet has created jobs for everybody, and it has given people the opportunity to learn new skills.
6. Technology Against Climate Change
A lot of technology formerly relied on fossil fuel, and because of that, there has been a lot of change in the world. To make way for fuel extraction, a lot of lands have been cleared of trees. Burning that fuel in closed environments has released toxic gases like carbon monoxide into the atmosphere, which is enabling climate change. Greener technology is helping us reduce our carbon footprint on this Earth and create a more sustainable way of living. Cars are now eco-friendlier engines to reduce emissions and better fuel consumption. Electric cars are also becoming more widely available because they have no emissions, and charging facilities are being introduced everywhere for them.
7. Animal Testing
Animal testing is a cruel way of putting any product to trial before releasing it into the open market. Animals are living beings with feelings and the ability to feel pain. It is cruel to subject them to harm just to ensure our products are safe for use. Fortunately, data technologies have given us a great alternative to this. With public medical records, a lot of this data can be processed to see what findings can be used to reduce animal testing, if not eradicate it completely.
Conclusion
In short, technology has surely improved and is continuously improving our lives in many spheres. It has created a lot of transparency in our doings. It is giving alternatives to our previous technologies and improving on our techniques. It is high time that we adopt technology to create a better society overall and maybe the reason to bring about world peace effectively.
