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TECHNOLOGY AND ITS SOCIAL IMPACT

Hi Everyone! Let me share with you my insight about the advantage and the disadvantages of technology in our society. I'll also be tackling how to address certain issues by telling true to life stories and understanding present situations of society and technology's impact on it.

TECH LEARNING NOT for Everybody

Fourteen-year-old Jenny Mae Santiago, a grade 11 student, struggles to acquire digital devices and stable internet connection for her modular online classes. Jenny Mae’s parents could not afford to buy her a new mobile phone since their budget is limited. To add to that, they only use old keypad phones as their primary means of communication. Jenny Mae has five (5) siblings and most of the time, she is the one who takes care of her younger siblings’ while her parents are away. Her mother works as a candle maker and her father is a construction worker. Their monthly income is just enough for their daily needs.

Fortunately, their neighbor borrowed an extra android phone for her to use for online classes. But she needs to buy her own sim card and its weekly credits/load. She sells, graham balls through online platforms to provide her weekly load. The promo load with internet costs about 100 pesos ($2) good for 7 days.

Jenny Mae is part of the 28 million Filipino students who have been greatly affected by school closures intended to minimize the spread of COVID-19 and to avoid putting the children at risk as they are one of the identified high-risk groups. Just like Jenny Mae, many students are experiencing inequality in treatment due to poverty; this eventually affected their education since they have no capacity to provide the necessary gadgets for their study.

The deployment of new technologies can exacerbate inequalities instead of reducing them, even in contexts of broad accessibility. Gaps in education can widen, for instance, if new technologies primarily benefit those pursuing tertiary education, or if they disproportionately improve the learning outcomes of children in wealthier households. (World Social Report, 2020)

Technology can be one of the finest tools for fostering sustainable development and new learnings. However, it can also be a hindrance to achieve every child’s dream. It may be cool for those who have more privilege, but for some… it may be the end of their chances of becoming educated.

So how does the world of technology help individuals who cannot afford to buy gadgets? How does it affect those who are the disadvantaged sectors? If technology is provided, do they have strong signal in their area and do they have enough funds to be able to keep subscribing to mobile data?

OPPORTUNITY in TECHNOLOGY

A Twenty-year old Jayson Bartolo, fresh graduate from a state university in Manila, received a phone call from a BPO company for an initial interview. Jayson took the opportunity to go to his first interview. One of the requirements of the company was to have knowledge in Computer Programming. Luckily, Jayson has all the skills and the education for it. He told to the interviewer that he had computer programming subjects during his college days and even flaunted that he has good grades on that subject. Considering that he was a BS Information Technology graduate, he is clearly very much familiar in computer programming and other IT related jobs. So… A week after his interview, he was informed that he got the job.

Nowadays, we know that technology has been found to be very useful; most especially in making personal jobs easy and keeping people productive. Automation helps us accomplish our jobs instantly and save time and energy for other things.

Digital innovation and artificial intelligence are opening up opportunities in sectors such as education, health and banking, with far-reaching implications for equality. The use of the Internet and mobile phones, for instance, is enabling more people in developing countries to access financial services. Open online courses can help democratize access to education. Mobile health applications make health-care delivery and monitoring systems available to underserved areas and populations. Improvements in data availability brought about by new technologies can enhance governance and facilitate participation, helping individuals and groups to voice their opinions and organize on behalf of common causes. (World Social Report, 2020)

Millennials most likely took advantage of the uses of technology in their everyday lives. They spend most of their time in checking their social media accounts, looking at their friends and families’ updates. But for the lucky ones, they were able to use this as a means of finding opportunities. Some use social media to build online businesses that include but are not limited to selling food, gadgets, and beauty products. Some are investing by making more inspiring and not-so inspiring videos to earn through monetary payouts in various social media sites like Facebook and Youtube.

OPPORTUNITY VS INEQUALITY

In the world of work, emphasis has focused largely on the potential implications of technological change for job destruction. Yet technologies usually replace specific tasks, rather than entire jobs. Often ignored is the fact that new technologies also generate new jobs and tasks, including those necessary to use, test, supervise and market new products and services. (World Social Report, 2020)

In reality, the individuals who are highly skilled in the field of technology has the most advantage in earning bigger than regular workers. It may affect those who are in the low-skilled and blue-collar jobs, and worst --- it may result to job reductions because of the change in demand for specific and technical positions. Mainly because, shifting to the use of technology in certain sectors can be a danger to the individuals who are working manually. It would probably lead into massive unemployment due to having so much qualifications in terms of tech skills.

Labour-saving technology such as automation can be a substitute for manual workers and can take over their jobs in an instant. This could be good news for other companies because of lowering their budget to just maintenance fees and increasing productivity in completing tasks. But this could also be the end of the career of many individuals because of the lesser need for manpower.