What Is the Most Beneficial and the Most Detrimental Advancement in Technology over the Last Decade?

 Technology has changed a lot over the last decade; you could even say that technology has changed us a lot over the last decade. It’s hard to dig in and simply pick the “most” beneficial technological advancement of the last decade; by definition the word technology means “the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes” which basically means that we are using our scientific knowledge to improve things around us to our benefit. Anyone who has been reading my blog over the last few months will know how I feel about various advancements in technologies such as wireless telecommunications and smartphone devices or tablets. Our processors are growing smaller and more powerful while new technologies like cloud computing and augmented reality are beginning to gather wind under their sails to help us transition into the next decade of advancements. Simply put we are advancing our technology and at a rather brisk rate. What is more important to me is where we are falling behind in our technology, space exploration. It’s my opinion that we should be focusing on finding more efficient ways to get space missions off the ground and into the sky, this means re-evaluating the technology we are using for shuttle engines and fuels. I feel like by this point we should have already privatized near earth space travel and that money could be funneled back into the space programs to advance our reach further into the universe.

As much as it seems that it has all been a downhill ride there have been some setbacks in technological advancements in the last decade. With more active users on the internet interacting with each other every day through various social sites our information is at the greatest risk yet. Some people have their information stolen and are never the wiser until it is too late, yet others willingly volunteer it without knowing it. There are threats to our information from the many websites we frequent or set up accounts for, some of which are simply because you fall into a targeted group that appeal to hackers. Many companies spend a lot of money to ensure that their users have a safe place to leave their personal information but that doesn’t always stop hacker groups from breaking in and stealing it. As disturbing as the thought of a hacker stealing all of your information from a secure server is, in a lot of cases the reality of who you are entrusting the information to in the first place, is even more disturbing. EULAs (end user licensing agreement) are a new thing by any means, for as long as companies have been providing us with software and services we have been scrolling to the bottom as fast as possible to click accept and move on. The problem is that a lot of these companies are banking on us to not read or know what it is we are agreeing to so that they can make a legally binding contract with you to not only sell your personal information but obtain more by some rather “shady” means. This isn’t a new a thing that has just begun recently, Annalee Newitz wrote an article back in 2005 (https://www.eff.org/wp/dangerous-terms-users-guide-eulas)regarding the dangers of EULAs and what it is exactly that we are accepting to before we can install our software. Times have changed and there is a new dynamic to the EULA story now. The mega publisher EA (Electronic Arts) released a PC gaming platform a little over a year ago called Origin in what was an attempt to run a similar store to what Valve has in its Steam program. The store would offer EA games for the PC for purchasing and digitally downloading to play. This is fine and frankly a good business decision; however when Origin came out the EULA stated that in order to install and use Origin you have to accept to allow EA complete access to scan your entire computer for all software, how often you use that software and other various hardware profiles you may have. Popular games such as Battlefield 3 could not be played without an account on Origin leaving many to reluctantly accept these bogus terms and conditions. You can read more about the EA and Origin debacle in the article John Walker wrote for Rock, Paper, Shotgun (http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/08/24/eas-origin-eula-proves-even-more-sinister/) a gaming magazine.

Even though we have seen a lot of great benefits in the last decade there are still risks out there and being knowledgeable about those risks is the best way to keep ourselves safe.





Walker, John, EA’s Origin EULA Proves Even More Sinister (08/24/2011) http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/08/24/eas-origin-eula-proves-even-more-sinister/

Newitz, Annalee, Dangerous Terms: A Users Guide to EULAs (02/17/2005) https://www.eff.org/wp/dangerous-terms-users-guide-eulas