Introduction
Reflection is a unique process that the human brain uses to solve essential problems, create various tools, develop its owner’s skills, and gain vast experience. With the rapid improvement of the technologies that resolve a substantial number of tasks for individuals, a question of deterioration of the human ability to think and make decisions arises. Indeed, if one relies on technology without critical assessments, the outcomes of the mutual work of a human and a program might be far from perfect. Moreover, if some human skills are replaced by technologies, one can unlearn to use the basic abilities necessary for everyday life. However, in current circumstances, it is impossible to imagine a person being inferior in cognitive skills to up-to-date products of innovation. Modern technology impacts the routine of an individual and simplifies his life but does not decrease his ability to use critical thinking.
The Implementation of Technological Products
To disclose the question of critical thinking and the current usage of technology, it is essential to understand what technologies replace human life. An average person relies on digital products in calculation procedures, data gathering and analyzing, repetitive actions in manufactories, information searches on the Internet, and some home duties. These procedures are majorly helping individuals to lead a more comfortable life advancing people’s abilities at the same time. Accepting the help of technology, people progress further using the saved time for other decision-making processes. Technological growth, for instance, allows targeting employees with specific qualities for unique working places (Karam 3). Additionally, reflective thinking stays a human prerogative and does not attach to any artificial intelligence creations. That is why human beings will always be one step forward than devices, and devices only help people to improve their skills.
Technology and Education
One might argue that such technology as the Internet prevents students from thinking properly during their education. With the help of the global network, individuals got access to vast information simplifying the research and learning processes. Indeed, before the Internet, people used libraries to acquire knowledge and find necessary data. Currently, one can search for keywords or phrases and analyze several sources more rapidly. At schools, teachers want students to acquire information by themselves, use reflective thinking, and not rely on quick short, easily reachable answers on the Internet.
Indeed, some data should be learned by heart to go forward in education. Nevertheless, it is not easy to get the answer to the question asking the students’ opinion or the answer to the problem that has several outcomes. To provide a proper answer, one must know how to use the Internet and how to search for and analyze data. Without these abilities, a person can only get easy answers to simple questions; all the other occasions teach a human to puzzle out the question by digging deeper for the information he finds relevant and useful for his research.
The Internet taught students to work with larger amounts of data by themselves. In previous times, a classical approach to school education was through interaction with a teacher and discussions with peers. The teacher provided most of the information during the lesson, and students passively received it already prepared, analyzed, and simplified. In the modern era of technologies, young individuals get used to working with web pages and learning information actively by themselves (Wyant and Baek 5). This prepares students for more advanced steps of education when most of the time, they are to find information by themselves and discuss it with professors later. The Internet allowed people to analyze endless numbers of sources and synthesize fresh ideas and conclusions in a shorter period. In other words, digital technologies allow people to think and concentrate more on decision-making than on simple repetitive processes that more likely can lead to brain atrophy.
Technology Enhances the Medicine and Human Performance in It
Modern technological innovations are the results of excellent human performance and thinking. Medicine successfully uses digital tools and programs to analyze the human body and detect markers signalizing a disease or its soon development. Further modern innovations are involved in healthcare; less invasive operations are needed to diagnose certain conditions. Invasive actions lead to resource spending, longer healing, and higher risks of death. With no interference, an ultrasound of a heart helps physicians find the abnormalities or pathologies that must be treated. The latter leads to patient life prolongation, enhancement of life quality, and decrease of the crucial mistakes by medical personnel. Therapy and technology unite in a successful symbiosis allowing humans to maintain their lives and prolong the remission of chronic diseases. These are the results of foremost human thinking and successful usage of technology.
Technology Saves the Planet with the Help of Human Thinking
Technological innovations created by individuals help to have better stewardship of the planet’s resources allowing to synthesize of renewable energy and solving the problems of hunger. With the help of technology, electric cars are successfully used in many countries all over the world. Electric cars are more environmentally friendly as they do not pollute the air with fuel combustion products. Gathered from sun, wind, and water, renewable energy allows the citizens to provide electricity that further can be converted into mechanical movements or heat production.
The achievements in genetic spheres brought humanity access to food, not relying on climate conditions. Genetically modified products eliminated hunger in many regions of the planet, providing food of better quality and nutrition characteristics. GMOs were initially met with suspicion and doubt; however, now, the products made with the help of science are not treated as unhealthy. In fact, no data states that GMOs negatively impact human health as it is hard to estimate separately the influence of genetically modified products on human health (Van Acker et al. 14). At the same time, GMO corps managed to save millions of lives from hunger due to human reflective thinking and creativity.
Conclusion
Thus, modern technology does not impact human’s ability to assess information critically. Digital tools simplify people’s lives and make them more comfortable and faster. Innovations in technological spheres, on the contrary, lead individuals to more significant success, progress, and development. Technology spares the time of a human by doing repetitive movements, complicated calculations, or data gathering and analyzing. In the learning process, the global network did not impact students’ cognitive abilities as the Internet taught them how to manage larger amounts of data. Students that are not hardworking in learning basic information for future academic progress make use of the Internet resources, but similar occasions happened without a global network when students cheated and searched for easy and fast answers from their classmates. The Internet prepares for search data by itself and works independently from others. Technological innovations created with the help of human cognitive abilities provided people with advanced medicine, elimination of hunger, and environmental care. These processes lead to further development of humanity, better and faster-thinking processes, and more technological innovations working in symbiosis with people.
Works Cited
Karam, Sofia, et al. “Integrating Systems Thinking Skills with Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Technology to Recruit Employee Candidates.” Expert Systems with Applications, vol. 160, no. 113585, 2020, pp. 1-38.
Van Acker, Rene, M. Motior Rahman, and S. Zahra H. Cici. “Pros and Cons of GMO Crop Farming.” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Environmental Science, no. 26, 2017. Web.
Wyant, James, and Baek, Jun-Hyung. “Re-Thinking Technology Adoption in Physical Education.” Curriculum Studies in Health and Physical Education, vol. 10, no. 1, 2019, pp. 3–17. Web.