What Is Technology and How Does It Affect Us?

Technology encompasses all tools, machinery and devices that help people gain something through the manipulation of nature. This includes a wide range of activities from making food, drink, and clothing to building cities, mining coal, producing fuels, and much more. It also encompasses all of the devices and tools we use to communicate, including computers and smartphones.

When we think of “technology,” it’s easy to focus on how things are made, but it’s just as important to consider the ways in which these technologies influence the world around us. How we create, implement and use them determines the kinds of changes they bring about.

Technological systems tend to prioritize certain paths of action and ignore others. For example, as digital cameras became more common, they shifted people away from using film and darkrooms to produce photographs. Moreover, digital cameras displaced the inefficient, but gratifying culture of physically retouching photos for hours. While these pathways are no longer dominant, they remain a route to photography.

As we continue to create new technology, it’s essential that we understand how these advances are creating global change. We need to understand the complexities of the technologies themselves and how they interact with their wider social, political and economic environments. This will help us make more informed decisions about their development, deployment and use. In addition, it will enable us to anticipate the potential consequences of those decisions and develop strategies to address them.