1.+Introduction

Without a doubt the most widely recognized advance mankind has made over the last 20 years is in technology. From communications to process improvement to medicine, we are leaps and bounds from where we were two decades ago. But these advancements in technology haven't come without a price. In this article, I'll explore some of the dark sides to our progress.

First let me clarify that I'm not at all against technology and I completely accept its benefits. It's what people have done or how they have reacted as result of having it that creates negative factors that are affecting us.

I've had experience working with small companies, fortune 500 companies and running my own. In the old days, communicating with internal and external clients and suppliers was a lengthy process. With the evolution of email, we've completely streamlined the process to instant communication no matter where you are in the world. That's a great thing. The problem is that over the years, it's become so easy to spew out emails that the actual job of reading and responding to communications has increasingly taken up more of our time. I remember working for a particular Fortune 500 company where my coworkers would receive over 200 emails a day, all from internal employees. As a result, the task of communicating through emails had actually become a big part of their job rather than a tool to do their job more effectively. From the customer's point of view, information advances in technology have given them unparalleled access to information and products that is only a few clicks away. That's supposed to be a good thing but again, because over overuse, the result has been more quantity, and less quality which actually makes it tougher for the consumer to find the information they are looking for.

The world is getting more and more technical. From machinery to the application of methodologies like 6 sigma and Lean to the most basic of tasks, we are making everything as efficient as possible. The immediate benefits are obvious; lower costs and output that is more consistent. But there are drawbacks to this. The most apparent is that as we offered customers the ability to obtain products at lower costs through the use of technology, at some point they cared more about lower prices than about the other benefits the products offer. This caused companies to continue reducing costs to satisfy expectations, and this in turn has resulted in shipping higher paying jobs to developing nations where the wages are much lower. In essence, there is nothing wrong with technology as a stand alone concept. But as most things in life, there are consequences in the bigger picture that can be dramatically different than what we expected. It's up to us to keep the balance between those advancements in technology not losing our common sense in how we apply them.

Marc D. has worked for various Fortune 500 companies, has started multiple entrepreneurial endeavors and has acquired various personal interests including content writing over the years. Please visit one of his latest interests in golfing products where he provides information on travel golf bags, leather golf bags and other types of related golf products.

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