Written by Nima, 2021 Cohort
The series of events that are happening every day in today’s world, demonstrates that everyday human beings are getting closer and closer to an all-digital world with an astonishing speed. This transition will sure improve the lives of those at the top of the social and economic ladder in the next few decades. There is a strong controversy if the upcoming digital developments will be beneficial to the majority of people all around the world or it will lead to a widening economic divide that leaves the majority in the dust.
Denise N. Rall, a professor of Arts and Social Sciences at Southern Cross University, Australia, says, “It is more likely that a climax will come, in a semi-apocalyptic scenario. If people continue to pursue digital realities over real-life realities – that is, too many people to feed and not enough resources to do so, plus the ever-widening gap between rich and poor – any kind of internet-based interactions will come under threat as our physical environment continues to deteriorate around us.“1 He strongly believes that there will be significant benefits from technology for the wealthy, and significant drawbacks to the poor.
In today’s world people prefer to stay more at their homes and connect with other people through their technological devices. Society is becoming more and more impersonal because of technologies which are replacing human forces. Technology has helped many people to connect with each other around the world but it is safe to say our species has lost the necessary human touch. People have been sort of addicted to devices and even when they are gathered together, they hardly start meaningful conversations like before. Today many services are totally online and it has helped a lot but on the other hand it has decreased the human connections. There are more and more self-drive cars and machines which are some revolutions in transportation system. But at the end it seems like the future which is certainly a digital world, is gradually keeping people at an arm’s length.
I always try to imagine how people in old days would see the future world. How much of their prognostications are now correct? The concept of people easily contacting each other was something absolutely unconceivable 100 years ago. Undoubtedly, technology has made performing many tasks less time consuming. However, many people say that it promotes an isolated lifestyle which negatively impacts physical and mental wellbeing. People are worried about their future in the digital life and try to find out more about it. On the one hand, technological wonders fascinate them. We should at least wait for another decade to see the real impacts of our future digital world.