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Technology and Jobs

In: Computers and Technology

Submitted By MANYFRESH
Words 1792
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Technology and Jobs

Abstract

Have you ever asked yourself whether or not technology may possibly be taking away multiple jobs from us humans? Why is this so? Jobs are becoming increasingly obsolete due to the fact that now, the job can be done by a computer. Now, when you go to the grocery store, there are self-checkout registers in which you, the consumer, do the work while the cashier’s job becomes less aggravating. Also, in the medical field, there are many operations and procedures that can now be calculated with certain technology. Moreover, in the engineering world, jobs are becoming deleted because of computers. Go back a few decades in time and try to imagine calculating something without a calculator. At an alarming rate, technology is decreasing our jobs at a very alarming rate. At this pace, in the future, all work will eventually be carried out by robots and computers.
Keywords: technology, jobs, computer, calculate, work

Technology and Jobs
“The U.S. economy hit an important milestone last week: Gross domestic product, the sum of all goods and services produced in the country, returned to pre-recession levels. But the gains were made with millions fewer workers. Part of the reason is technology, as computers and machines continue to replace humans.” You must ask yourself whether or not technology may possibly be taking away multiple jobs from us humans. Why is this so? Jobs are becoming increasingly obsolete due to the fact that now, the job can be done by a computer. Now, when you go to the grocery store, there is self-checkout registers in which you, the consumer, do the work while the cashier’s job becomes less aggravating. Also, in the medical field, there are many operations and procedures that can now be calculated with special technology. Moreover, in the engineering world, jobs are becoming deleted because of computers. Go back a few decades in time and try to imagine calculating something without a calculator. It would have to be done by hand back in those days. Now, a calculator can calculate pretty much everything that you need to be done. At an alarming rate, technology is decreasing jobs at a very alarming rate. At this pace, in the future, all work will eventually be carried out by robots and computers.

Everyone goes to Wal-Mart Supercenter every so often, correct? You can analyze and check it out as it is currently. Being by the cashier area has completely changed your view of what the world will come to in another few decades due to the renovations that Wal-Mart has made. Five or six quick check-out registers have been replaced with an area of self-check-out registers for the customers to use. What does this do? What this does is reduce the labor on the actual employee and cashiers, and now, you are going into the store, getting your groceries, and checking out on your own. In other words, you are doing work that you should not be doing for free! This is ridiculous. This is the job of the cashiers not the consumer. Labor is going up on our part, but going down for the employee at a rate in which is alarming. It should not be so. As a result, Wal-Mart now needs fewer cashiers to run registers. You, the consumer, is now the cashier and if you take a look at it from a specific point of view, it will be seen that you are working for free in a sense. This is unacceptable and a solution needs to be approached to resolve this issue. If this continues, people that usually did these jobs are now kicked out of their position. Why? All because of technology based products.

Furthermore, medicine is becoming less dependent upon the actual people in which carry out specific procedures. For example, nursing will be an unnecessary job type in years to come. Already, there have been changes made to the medical field and how many jobs a doctor’s office really provides. Previously, you would go into a doctor’s office and a typical physical consisted of first getting your blood pressure, temperature, weight, height and more taken by the nurse on the clock. Now, doctors are starting to not even have to hire on nurses because there is a device in which you stand on now and get hooked up to this machine and it takes blood pressure, temperature, height, and weight of the patient. This is amazing in a way, but at the same time, it is not looking too well for nurses. This machine is forcing less dependence upon nurses. After getting on the machine, patients can immediately go to their lab examination room and get their physical by their doctor and be on their way. Conveniently for the doctors, they now have no need for nurses or as many nurses for that matter as before all because of technology.

In addition to this, in the mathematical, engineering, and calculations world, jobs are becoming outdated as well. For the most part, these are the occupations that are becoming taken away from the occupation holder. For the most part, you may be familiar with Watson, the IBM supercomputer. Watson was an experiment to test whether or not a supercomputer could complete a game of Jeopardy. “This week Watson took on two teams from MIT and Harvard. The auditorium, packed with students. Although Harvard managed to do well, its team was no match for the powerful computer.” Watson beat the all-time Jeopardy game show “human” champion. Reason being is because Watson has a processing speed much faster than the brain’s process speed. Humans must think about the question for a few seconds before coming up with a response. Watson, on the other hand, is much faster at thinking and can come up with an answer in a matter of just hearing the question. This proves that if these computers know so much, computer majors in college will most likely be changing their majors in time to come. Now, in the meanwhile, you have the science and mathematics field also losing jobs because now, there are computer-based software that does all the work for the individuals in that field. In example, engineers must take several math courses and science courses that involve manipulating numbers and math such as physics. Going through school is the difficult part. Once math and engineering students have graduated and have a position as an engineer with a multi-million dollar company, their work is based on working on the computer every day because of being so dependent upon the computer. The software allows engineers to be able to not have to solve a problem by hand. If this is so, what will happen to jobs that engineers hold?
What can we think of all of this? No matter what your occupation, they are all headed for a downfall and another Great Depression. Technology is becoming so advanced that you no longer have control over what is being done. There are even robots that have reportedly been helping out with medical procedures. Robotics is an upcoming technological advance. You may tell yourself, “I have a little more sense of job security when it comes to these types of scenarios.” What you are not seeing is no matter what, people do not feel as if anyone would let a robot conduct a medical operation on their body because they would not feel safe at all. It would be a nightmare having a robot do a cardiac surgery on a human being. Because of this, you may not have much to worry about. All other jobs are at risk because other’s jobs can be replaced in a heartbeat. This issue is also vital to bread makers because it affects the people around you. Although citizens may have job security, this does not necessarily mean that everyone else does. Without business revenue coming in from all directions and sources, you will in turn have a job, but no business, which makes no sense so it affects the business world as well a great deal. People’s everyday life would be affected a lot because of the fact that there will be no business. No business equals no money for families. Job security is at the top of the list when it comes to deciding what major to choose while in college. At the end of the day, it all goes back to a few years back when you were choosing your majors. It can be an extremely frustrating situation.
In conclusion, jobs are becoming increasingly obsolete due to the fact that now, the job can be done by a computer. Now, when shoppers go to the grocery store, there is self-checkout registers in which the consumer, do the work while the cashier’s job becomes less aggravating. Also, in the medical field, there are many operations and procedures that can now be calculated with certain technology. Moreover, in the engineering world, jobs are becoming deleted because of computers. Go back a few decades in time and try to imagine calculating something without a calculator. It would have to be done by hand back in those days. Now, a calculator can calculate pretty much everything that you need to be done. At an alarming rate, technology is decreasing jobs at a very alarming rate. At this pace, in the future, all work will eventually be carried out by computer technology and robots. It is a very scary situation. Ultimately, how does this affect you, your families, your everyday lives, and how does this pertain exactly to you? As a solution, citizens can all help the situation with a few methods. First off, vote for laws pertaining to the matter that state there is a regulation at worksites that puts a cap on the amount of work that a computer will help employees do. Moreover, take a stand and try our hardest to depend less on computers. The fact of the matter is, people all need to come to a realization, if every technological source shuts down one day, what will people do? At least you can be prepared efficiently for the situation.

References
Arnold, Chris. "How Technology is Eliminating Higher-Skill Jobs." NPR. NPR, 03 Nov 2011. Web. 27 Sep 2013. .
"Blurred Business People Entering and Leaving Office Building." iStock. iStock. Web. 27 Sep 2013. .
Joseph, Chris. "Pros and Cons of Technology in Business Today." Chron. Chron. Web. 27 Sep 2013. .
Rotman, David. "How Technology is Destroying Jobs." MIT Technology Review. MIT Technology Review, 12 Jun 2013. Web. 27 Sep 2013. .
Slavin, P. (1996). The information age and the civil society. Phi Delta Kappan, 77607-609.

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