Don't Blame Technology for Human Nature
By Shazad
We live in a very advanced and fast-moving world. Some people are very concerned about how much technology is around us and how people are using it. The concerns are worth paying attention to but not because of technology alone. As long as humans have existed, there has been bad behaviour and abuse of leadership, tools, and communication. That is just part of the human experience.
Today’s Internet with Social Media and Wireless Internet (WiFi) technology isn’t causing people to behave good or bad…it is exposing those that know how to use the technology for either good or evil. Everything that used to happen in the past is happening faster these days. None of the gossiping, lies or personal attacks on people is new to anyone living in any human society. Likewise, many people are using technology to provide learning opportunities, mentoring and encouragement to people all across the world. People who could never get the right information to make a business decision or even basic education are benefiting every day from the global reach of the Internet.
Long before Social Media, people were able to spread lies in newspapers as well as by telephone. Long before these technologies, humans wrote vicious lies and total nonsense in books, on flyers and on building signs. Many fictional stories and biased historical records were recorded to make some other group or nation look bad. Similarly, when most of the communication was verbal, people said many foul things about each other and pretended they were ignorant of facts. This doesn’t mean that speaking, writing or reading is bad. We don’t suddenly decide to burn all the books and ban newspapers because some of them contain false or insulting writing. Likewise, we shouldn’t try to ban the Internet or social media because or any other technology because that is NOT the source of the problem! People who are going to be cruel, hostile and tell lies in real life will use Social Media to do the same. The kind, intelligent and honest people of the world wont suddenly be a different person online.
Technology is a neutral tool like a hammer, pen or microphone. It’s how we choose to use or abuse the modern tools that determine what the end result will be. Computers and the Internet don’t have any morality -they don’t know right or wrong. The people who use these tools are the ones responsible for what happens. Always demonstrate the best behaviour in person or online with whatever tool you happen to use so that you will have nothing but Awesome results!