Are Modern-Day Creations Actually Harming Society?

I truly believe that a positive thought can go a long way—that we tend to manifest what rolls around in our heads. For that reason, I try my damnedest to push the nasty thoughts to the clink in attempt to free up space and attract the good. At the same time, I have eyes. I can see the state of the world. It’s hard stay positive, to be the eternal optimist, especially when there is so much uncertainty (and occasional dread) in the news every day. It makes one think. Ponder. Philosophize.

Well, it does me, anyway.

I got to wondering the other day if there weren’t perhaps some things—some contributing factors—that could be playing into this current demise of civility, something that I haven’t witnessed (at this level) in my generation. Aside from innate values and general herd behavior, could there be things introduced to the environment that wildly affect society—good and bad. (Damn, that sounded massively science-geeky).      

Put more simply, have there been some recent (relatively speaking) inventions that have profoundly altered the world in which we currently live?

What really got me thinking about this was comparing the vast differences in my childhood (Gen X) to that of my children (Gen Z), primarily around technology—technology that theoretically should advance society in some positive manner. But I’m just not seeing it play out that way. Now, of course, there is a lot of subjectivity to this, and most everything here is based on observation and my own personal opinions. I’m not claiming there to be any deep-seated science here, nor does it really solve any real-world problems. It is simply an enlightening visual aimed at driving discussion.

Following were some general questions I pondered when determining the overall goodness or badness of a particular invention:

• Has it provided true value to society?

• Has its value been fleeting, or has it stood the test of time?

• Has it become an essential/necessary part of life, or is it really more of a superfluous perk that is simply nice to have?

• Over time, has it helped society to move forward, to evolve, to grow?

• Or, over time, has it essentially done the opposite, perhaps causing division (benefitting only a few), or, in a sense, contributed to unethical, unscrupulous or detrimental practices that actually set society back?

• Has it run into any unintended consequences or impacts?

• Has it been abused in unforeseen ways?

Following is a deeper dive into the thought process I used to derive the trajectory for each invention along the G-B Spectrum image at the top of this post.

Lightbulb:  Added here as a general baseline for something that could be thought of as a solid contributor to the greater good of society over time. It would be hard to argue much downside to this invention. As availability ramped up throughout the world, providing instant light has been one of the more impactful inventions over the past couple of centuries. Perhaps the only negative, indicated by the slight down curve, would be the energy dependence on fossil fuels and resulting impacts to the climate (though renewable energy sources could potentially flatten the curve).

Automobile:  Similar to the lightbulb, overall, the automobile has been an impactful invention that allowed society to become more nimble, to travel, to expand. And, if you lump other vehicles into the mix from industries like farming and construction, they certainly have been of great benefit to society. Let’s be honest, life can’t happen without them. However, with the explosion of vehicle availability and usage over time, the unforeseen impacts to the environment have contributed to a somewhat downward trend (also perhaps to be flattened through the adoption of renewable energy). Oh, and automobile crashes and deaths—there’s that.

Airplane:  Mostly beneficial from a military standpoint in its infancy (which could be seen as both good and bad), once it started being used for commercial travel it had similar (and even greater) impacts than the automobile. It became a much more efficient (and fast) way to connect the entire world. Over time, its benefit to society has been largely positive, with similar downsides as the automobile (oh, and airline crashes and deaths—there’s that).

Television:  Overall, the television has had a plus-benefit to society. It lets people escape reality, if for even a brief time, allowing them to get lost in the comedy, drama, horror, music and other entertainment that flashes across the screen. It has been an essential medium to transmit valuable information to a mass audience while allowing viewers to choose what they consume. However, there has been a downward trend in the past couple of decades as station ownership has consolidated, and the platform is being used more frequently as a political tool to divide (and, in some cases, radicalize) the population. It is also becoming more expensive, with “free” content being mostly replaced with fee-based subscriptions.

Internet:  For purposes here, this is being used as a broad term for the underlying infrastructure that connects the information technology across the globe, that which really exploded commercially in the mid-to-late 1990’s. Derived from some pretty amazing advances in hardware and networking, it quickly became a way of connecting the entire world on a larger and faster scale, and is the platform on which many of the things created in the 21^st century now teeter. It allowed for the birth of a new means of commerce, as well as for the establishment of a globally-connected workforce, all of which has its positives and negatives (yes, I am biased after working in the IT industry for many years and seeing jobs shift among various countries). But, with a new creation come new problems as well. In such a vast cloud, methods on how best to police the use of the infrastructure is debatable, and, as such, it certainly has been abused (much of which to be discussed in items below). Still relatively young, its ultimate fate is yet to be written—perhaps a wash so far on the good-bad scale. For every good thing created, there seems to be a pending bad.

Cellular phone:  Another solid invention that picked up commercial speed toward the latter part of the 20^th century, its early usage was a convenient way to contact someone from anywhere in the telecom network. Transforming over the years, the cell phone has now morphed into the modern smart phone with voice, text and data capabilities—arguable as to its inherent good or bad. While it has allowed for unprecedented levels of convenience at the fingertips, it is not without its problems as well. Let’s face it, people have become addicted to their phones. They consume our lives. And the worst part is that it has infiltrated our youth, most of whom have their own phones and readily choose the solitude inside as opposed to the outdoor adventures I experienced as a youth. It makes me sad for current generations. Weighing the cost versus the benefits of the modern technology, I personally see a continued down trend in the overall value to society.

Social Media:  This umbrella includes things such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, X (Twitter), as well as dating websites and other social interaction applications. Admittedly, I have some pretty strong opinions on this one. In the beginning, this technology was a fun way to reconnect with people from your past, and to perhaps interact with those whom you might otherwise never have met. Fast forward a couple of decades, and the underlying danger with many of these platforms has become the tendency for stronger and more advanced “algorithms” to force-feed people what it thinks they want to see, while sequestering other points of view. Unfortunately, many of these environments have become a breeding ground for the undesirable—anger, hatred, fear, misinformation, political polarization. Hidden behind the protection of a screen, people sit isolated and empowered by the wall of freedom to generate conflict without consequence. Civil (in-person) interaction has been replaced by the quick and powerful written quip aimed at destroying someone with a single witty line. And, again, the many impacts of social media on our young has been damaging and likely irreversible. Other than the small number of “influencers” that have found a way to profit from the technology (though is that really of benefit?), perhaps the only redeeming value of the technology is as a means for small businesses, starving artists, musicians and similar others to reach an audience through a relatively inexpensive medium. There is just too much bad to outweigh the good. I would submit that the current iteration of social media is contributing to the downfall of society as a whole, venturing so far as to say that case studies decades from now will find this technology, and those who created it, to be some of the most detrimental forces in the past century.

E-Commerce:  Included here would be any entity selling products exclusively online (Amazon, Etsy, Wayfair, etc.), hybrid businesses with a combination of physical stores and an online presence (Walmart, Target, etc.), as well as non-commerce websites used to advertise products and services. There are some definite upsides to this relatively new business model, especially in terms of reach and convenience. Websites can be a valuable way to mass advertise to a world-wide audience over a platform that is less expensive than traditional mediums like television and radio (not to mention having greater creative control and speed). Elderly and disabled populations can now receive goods straight to their homes, and it opens up greater variety to those in remote locations through a few simple clicks and a stored credit card. But with convenience come some pitfalls (a recurring theme across many of these new technologies?). The ease of each transaction may be encouraging people to spend money they don’t have, not to mention adding to the isolation of never having to leave the house when everything is available at the fingertips. Also, e-commerce in an anomaly in that it increases variety and choice, while decreasing it at the same time. It is no secret that the boom of online traffic has already killed many brick-and-mortar stores and will likely continue to do so in the future, making it harder for local and small business to compete and stay afloat in the non-digital world. On the current trajectory, it is certainly feasible that everything could eventually be consolidated and monopolized under a small number of massive companies, which could certainly affect choice and price. Oh…and sophisticated hackers have made this online environment their playground for credit card and identity theft.

Cigarettes:  Duh. Enough said. Added here as a general baseline for something that could be thought of as having essentially no value to the greater good of society over time.

To wrap things up, this was simply an exercise in examining the effect of manmade creations on the greater society, with a sampling of some of the bigger inventions over the past century or so. Many others could be added to the G-B Spectrum. Is it just me, or does it seem that many of the modern-day inventions are actually taking us in the wrong direction? Holy shit I fear where AI, the next new frontier, will take us. What do you think?