Writing Assignment 1

One reason humans resist new technology is they are not confident enough with new technology. Firstly, people lack confidence in technology because they are ignorant of technology’s benefit. Not enough exposure to new technology causes people to fear new technology and keep visualizing negative results. For example, some people resist using hybrid cars instead of normal cars. They do not know that the hybrid car’s consumption of petrol is less than that of normal cars, yet the performance of hybrid cars is better. Instead, people are comfortable with their existing way of life. Secondly, people might think that new technology will cause difficulties. For instance, people are afraid of using solar systems to generate heat because they think that when there is no sunshine, there is no heat produced. This misunderstanding could lead people to resist new technology. In another example, instead of doing online transactions, people prefer to go to a bank and complete their transactions there. Thirdly, people do not believe that machines can do certain jobs better than humans. Since people are not confident with new technology, they are afraid that the technology will create problems. For instance, people are afraid that the cheque deposit machine might lose their cheque or cannot complete their transactions due to machine errors. Another example is doing surgery by using an electronic arm. Some people insist that the surgery be done by a doctor instead of an electronic arm, even though there are many successful examples of machine-conducted operations. In conclusion, people resist new technology because they lack confidence in it. Ignorance of the benefits, worry about the inconvenience, and doubt in reliability all contribute to their lack of confidence.