The Danger of Technology
Technology is a good thing that came to make life easy for human beings. Tedious tasks that used to take long to complete became easy and took a short time. This helped increase productivity since there was more time to do more work. However, technology has taken a new turn and begun to bring negative side effects. People have become withdrawn because they work in solitude; a single man can operate many machines as opposed to earlier where people interacted as they worked together. There is monotony as most machines are programmed to work in a similar continuous manner; this has eradicated creativity since man cannot come up with ways to perform a task because the machine will do it with ease.
Machines have taken the place of human thought and emotion. In the story “There will come soft rains” the house is automated to do everything for the owner. The house seems to be deserted because every time the house prepares itself for an activity such as breakfast, there is no person who eats it and it is disposed after a set time limit. The state of the starved dog that was once fleshy is the indicator that the inhibitors of the house are no longer around. The house also has very detailed security measures where doors and windows shut when there is slight movement outside. However, technology cannot outlive nature as evident in the poem “There will come soft rains”. Even the automated safety measures are no match for the fire that is propelled by the strong wind outside the house. The house can do anything but save itself and is therefore destroyed.
In a similar way, technology has made some people withdrawn because of lack of affection. In the story the “Veldt”, George’s children have replaced their parents with their automated house. the house does everything a parent does for their child such as bathing, cooking and even tying shoe laces and because of these, the children feel that their house is their father and mother. They hate their parents for daring to take their precious nursery away from them and when they are given one last chance to play in the nursery before its destruction for good, they take the opportunity to get rid of their parents. To the children, they do not see any need to have parents around since their automated house performs all parental duties.
In conclusion, technology is important in the running of day to day activities. However, if it is overused and over-relied on, it will be the cause of destruction for man, the inventor of technology.