An article on technology's role in our life. [Selfwritten]

“Power no longer flows from the barrel of gun,
Rather it flows from the click of mouse”


The older times when we used to use ink & feather as a writing aid are no longer pursued nowadays. Things have changed, as has the time. Now also writing on my laptop I am greatly thankful of Microsoft and their invention of MS word, through which I am able to write down this worthy piece of article. Times have changed since Mugh le Azm’s era and today we thrive on technology for most of our daily business.
Imagine starting your day without the technology abetting you! You won’t wake up, I bet, with out an alarm clock. Then from having your relish breakfast to rushing up at work on your favorite pair of wheels, technology is what you need most. It’s the age of science & reasoning. And technology has certainly become what is oxygen for living. There are more computers in today’s time than even the people living on earth! Almost every thing you can ponder has a computer’s intrusion. According to an estimate: By 2015 India will, at the rate it's growing, reach around 150 million PCs with about 10 million in households. There was an interesting article in India's Economic Times that confirms what a lot of people know already: Mobile web is fast becoming the primary means of accessing the web for many people, especially in developing nations. India has 9 million internet subscribers against 31 million mobile internet users who use the mobile web. About 54% of new handsets sold in 2006 were internet-enabled according to the same report. The figures come from the Indian regulator, so presumably they are reasonably accurate. The boom in telecommunication industry in the past few years is very well known. And so, even kids of class five are carrying a personal cell phone of their own. Internet, Email, Blogs, Net surfing are like very obvious stuff for today’s kids. People live their lives more on social networking sites than they socially do! Orkut’s the name we are all familiar with? Now what I am emphasizing here is an obvious fact that technology, gadgets & computers have become an integral part of our lives today. Also to match the tempo of today’s age of persistent development, we need to catch up with the rapid growing technological developments. So is quoted-

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic!" - Arthur C. Clarke

Now when we talk of computers, internet obviously pops up in our minds. I guess most of the guys would agree to stay on moon for a tedious time, with only the facility of internet & pizzas with them! Internet is in fact such a powerful tool, that its merits & benefits are innumerable. With the advent of websites like Google and Wikipedia, nothing in this world is hidden from you & almost nothing is undefined! The Internet in India (I-Cube) study jointly undertaken by the Internet And Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IMRB International reveals that Mumbai with 3.24 million ever users and 2.6 million active users, leads the pack of top 8 internet using metros in India. Delhi follows close behind with 2.66 and 1.80 million of ever and active users respectively. Emails have become what letters were in the past. And we all communicate around the world easily, just with a click of mouse! In the field of education & learning internet has become really significant. There are many students from various foreign countries who get the privilege to study online subjects like mathematics & science from very qualified brains from India, just with the aid of internet. Along with getting information on the Internet, you can also shop online. There are many online stores and sites that can be used to look for products as well as buy them using your credit card. You do not need to leave your house and can do all your shopping from the convenience of your home. It would be correct to say that literate in modern times is not just the one who can read & write, but also the person must have some cognizance of computers. If you don’t know computer, then you are as good as an illiterate today! So playing with a mouse is more prominent than playing with a pen! Bill gates once quoted-

"The great thing about a computer notebook is that no matter how much you stuff into it, it does'nt get bigger or heavier!" – Billgates

Everything comes with a price, & so does the technology. With a varied & numerous boons, technology also has many abuses of it. Apart from many useful things, there are many inhuman, unhealthy & evil things also in the capacious world of internet! Pornography is a very serious issue concerning the Internet, especially when it comes to young children. There are thousands of pornographic sites on the Internet that can be easily found and can be a detriment to letting children use the Internet. Spamming: another one of the biggest abuse of web with the aid of emails is affecting users and organizations worldwide. This refers to sending unsolicited e-mails in bulk, which serve no purpose and unnecessarily clog up the entire system. Hacking is another destructive abuse of internet in the web world. According to a BBC news report of 30th April’2001 a hacker group, of group leader ‘Lion’, based in china initiated a coordinated offensive against computer networks in US. The hacker attacks were intended as retaliation for the death of a Chinese pilot in the recent incident involving an American spyplane. Sites run by the US labour and health departments were broken into and altered. US suffered a huge loss of capital & time. Hacker groups like China’s People Liberation Army (PLA) have targeted many nations like US, UK, Germany, Australia, France and New Zealand. Today terrorists need not be much armed to cause a heavy damage to a nation, because today power of mouse is much more sufficient than the power of nukes or any other weapons.
Apart from having various boons and banes, the most clear and obvious fact is that the power of technology and particularly internet is beyond elucidation. Today we can’t think of living and developing further, without the assistance of technology. Some inhuman people might find ways of abusing technology, but then technology only helps us & acts against them. And thus it is correct to say that “The click of mouse can be more forceful than the boom of explosive!”
- Akshat Rastogi.