Technology has had quite a positive impact on human life by resolving issues in everyday life and making many jobs easier to do. Technology has made it simpler to farm, build cities, and travel, effectively connecting all nations on the planet, contributing in the creation of globalization, and making it easier for organizations to expand their business. As more elements of life become digital, the challenges to privacy and security will become more prevalent. People have greater concern about their personal information being hacked.
In July 2019, it was announced that Facebook was to be fined $5 billion by the Federal Trade Commission due to its privacy violations. With the advancement of artificial intelligence, it might be possible that one day it will take over human intelligence. Stephen Hawking’s biggest warning is about the rise of artificial intelligence: It will either be the best thing that’s ever happened to us, or it will be the worst thing. We can also see its impact on people’s mental wellbeing.
Have we become a slave to technology? People are always engrossed in their electronic devices, whether it’s a smartphone, laptop, computer, or anything else. They don’t even have time for their loved ones. As digital life expands we see an increase in the levels of stress, anxiety, and depression. There was a fake rumor a few years ago that an HIV-positive juice firm employee had dropped his blood in the juice despite stringent safety checks, risking the lives of thousands of people. False information and hoaxes spread in a matter of seconds, causing massive disruption in large organizations, even stable organizations are vulnerable to the dark side. The consequences of the false rumors could be disastrous.
Every day we trust our lives with so many people for example pilots, chefs, drivers, doctors, pharmaceutical companies, etc. What if people are struggling with their emotional challenges in those roles? What kind of humans are we leaving behind for our world if today’s children are not mentally stable or lack a strong character? Who is to blame if a surgeon is not psychologically stable while performing surgery? The world was taken aback by the horrific incident when a pilot deliberately nosedived his plane into the ocean in Singapore a few years ago, killing hundreds of people. Following the tragedy, investigators began looking into the pilot’s personal life.
It was determined throughout the inquiry that he had been battling with his emotional well-being over time. All the professions are created in school, where the character is built, where we teach our children to deal with the challenges, and if we don’t do it, will we be able to trust the people in the society? Will you trust somebody who is struggling with emotional challenges? There have been numerous incidents of school shootings and bar shootings that have resulted in the deaths of hundreds of innocent people, and the number continues to rise. Army troops experience high levels of stress, and there is an increasing number of suicide cases in the armed forces. Data on mental health isn’t going down; it’s really going up!
How do we expect our children to express their emotions? We are not even teaching them to be aware of their emotions. The child can always hide these things, and the outcome will be undesirable. For how long society will function if we keep on adding emotionally unhealthy people in the community? Every day we are pushing them to become intellectually stronger but it could be a directionless steer and this will come at the price of their emotional wellbeing. How often do we teach them to be emotionally aware and healthy? At Mindful Souls, we are ‘Creating A World that Cares’. For you, it could simply be a proposal to take care of your emotional well-being, but at the pace that mental health cases are increasing, these children will be the leaders of the future. There is so much work needed to be done and clearly not enough is happening.
Some people choose to make money through unethical ways in order to live a lavish lifestyle. In the process, the vast majority of them destroy human life’s most fundamental values. Ethical living is no longer a concern for people; the only thing that matters to them is monetary gain. To fix these issues, leaders, parents, teachers, and society as a whole need to come forward and lead the change to inculcate core human values.
Next time you fly, visit a doctor, or eat outside, anything that involves other people’s involvement, can you tell if a person is emotionally healthy just by looking at them?
