The Disadvantages of Electronics

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Today, more and more people have access to electronic items such as laptops, tablets, and smartphones. These items are available to the young and to the old, to the poor and to the rich, and to the famous and to the infamous. And while these items have many advantages, they certainly have many drawbacks.

Electronics can negatively affect vision. Computers, tablets, and smartphones can stress your eyes. This is not because that they are glowing screens but because they are closer to your eyes. Most people spend hours a day on electronic devices. Before electronics were available on a global scale people used to look at objects closely for a less amount of time. Now, people are constantly staring and close up smart phones without giving their eyes any rest. My school gave every student an iPad, and my vision has declined since then. Electronics are major causes of vision problems.

Furthermore, electronics can hurt your social life. People now do most of their socializing through electronics. They Facebook, iMessage, and Tweet. While this makes communication over long distances much easier and can keep friends together in different states, bad people can also gain from this. Recently someone posted extremely insulting comments about someone through social media and the victim committed suicide. If Facebook, Twitter, and iMessage didn’t exist, the victim would have to be insulted in front of his/her face. That is incredibly harder. Imagine that you were to insult me in person rather than leave a nasty comment on this blog. It would be much harder. Right? This disadvantage of electronics is very serious.

In addition electronics have security issues. Electronics have been known to be hacked. They have also been known to hack. Recently target and other major retailers just had thousands of customers get their credit cards stolen. All the information was stored on a computer–an electronic device. The hackers also used and electronic device. Nowadays, instead of having to pickpocket hundreds of credit cards individually, thieves can get a hacker to type lines of code and push one button to steal thousands of credit cards. These are then put on the black market. Now the federal agents have to find these credit card owners and notify them of the theft. Then the owners can cancel the card. The thing is that they didn’t even know that their credit card was stolen, because they still had the physical card. To extend this thought farther, the hackers just steal more credit cards, so if one person cancels his/her credit card another person gets their credit card stolen. Credit card theft can have seriously negative consequences in someone’s future. This can be caused on a massive scale by electronics.

Another disadvantage is that electronics can compromise your privacy. The United States government has been tapping into phone calls in an attempt to decrease terrorist attacks. Whether this has worked or not is still being studied, but many Americans were enraged that the their government would be secretly listening to private conversations. This was also made possible by electronics.

Overall, electronics can have many disadvantages and harmful effects. The effects can range from benign to serious. So next time you use an electronic device and think about all the things it helps you do, keep mind of the drawbacks it can have.

 

Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Chris Smith via Compfight

8 comments

  1. You’ve given this topic some thought, Soham. Excellent points, well-supported with specifics. I appreciate the effective word choice throughout!

  2. I like this blog because it is very appealing for those who love electronics. I personally love electronics and think they are very helpful. I feel they can do more good than bad. But, i did enjoy how you included some of the possible effects of electronic use. I think there is a good amount of facts, and details to back up your point. Good job! You could have added slightly more detail of what people could do instead of using the electronics, and build off more from there.

    1. I am considering writing another post called: “Substitutes for Electronics.” Thanks for the suggestion. I am also thinking about writing a contradicting post called: “The Advantages of Electronics.” Thanks again for the tips.

  3. Hello, I totally agree with you! Now a days, most teenagers are losing their vision from electronics that they depend on with their life. It’s sad to think that a cellphone or a tablet can totally destroy your life. From losing your vision to being cyberbullied and maybe taking you’re life, these electronics have totally taken over and destroyed everything. I will say, though, that electronics have helped a lot. They make communicating so much easier by having a computer in your hands in seconds and just having everything at your fingertips. These electronics have made a huge impact to our world but mostly in our era. The people being affected by the drastic change from no cellphones to a 10 year old with an iPhone is the youth so there are people with these phones at 10 years old. This is all that their going to know. They rely only on their phone to communicate and every other thing. 20 years ago, people could communicate in many more different ways. People are taking advantage of the privilege of having a cellphone at hand. Many people don’t because they don’t want to have it overtake their life. Do you have any electronics? If yes, have they overtaken your life? Do you think that 20 years from now they will still have electronics or will they suddenly go away? Or Do you think that 20 years from now the whole world will be overtaken by electronics?

    1. I wouldn’t say that electronics have taken over my life, but they do play a pretty big role in it. 20 years into the future, people will probably be driving in autonomous cars. People might even wear electronic skin. There are scientists developing it right now. I wouldn’t expect the world to be “taken over” by electronics in 20 years, but in 1,000 years, we might be living in space. The possibilities are endless. Electronics can be really cool and helpful. I am just saying that we should be careful about how we use them.

  4. Hi Soham
    You make some good and worrying points in this post about people’s dependency on electronic devices and the physical dangers involved.
    I remember reading about people being just as worried when locomotives were introduced. Does progress always seem threatening to begin with? Maybe it isn’t progress at all but a backward step!
    I’m looking forward to seeing how you go in the student blogging challenge. Have you checked in with the tasks on the website?
    Best wishes from down under!

    1. Progress may be scary because it is different from what people are used to, but if it is progress, it is a step forward. The locomotive revolutionized transportation. I am just saying that we need to be aware of the unintended consequences from progress. While the locomotive revolutionized transportation, it also polluted the air.

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