The Pros & Cons of Technology no comments
© cdogstar
Sometimes, its hard to make up your mind about technology. Is it more of a help, or a hindrance? Recently, I pulled out an old-school notebook and drew a pros and cons chart. Here’s what I’ve come up with so far:
Pros:
1. No wait time: communication is faster than every before.
2. Easy access: Even if you don’t have a smartphone you can instantly check your messages on, more and more buildings have free wifi or even allow the use of a desktop. Its easier than ever to find a connection, and get access to information in a couple of clicks.
3. Business is Cheaper: There are so many things now you can do in-house because of technology that make things cheaper. You can now do instant copies on a tiny machine or send newsletters via email to save on postage.
4. Access to Information: If you want to know about something, its probably on the internet. Basic know-how, information and news is accessible almost instantly online.
5. Everyone can go global: Now even a tiny one-man shop can do business on a global scale.
Cons:
1. Learning curve: You have to learn something with every new piece of technology.
2. Upgrades: Don’t you hate upgrades? Especially the kind you have to pay for. Every year needing a new service pack or whatever. Or better yet a whole new computer.
3. Dependence: What happens to your company if your wifi goes out, or worse, all your power? Your business stops. (At least mine does.) If something happens to one of our handy devices we become useless.
4. Local Market Changes: If you are working a local market area you might suddenly have competition you never imagined just because someone in China does faster shipping.
5. Less Time: You’d think with all these time saving gadgets we’d all just hang out in a hammock and sip lemonade. But statics show people having less free-time because we are so connected. We just never stop working.
Of course in my pros and cons example I’m mostly referring to the kinds of technology we use in business, I’m not even touching on green technology or science and medicine but those might have their own pros and cons as well.
What would you add to the list in the pros or cons section?