Technology’s Negative Impact On Business

By Philip Yiga | January 24, 2017

The use of technology in businesses has come with so many benefits to the extent that any business that wants to develop quickly and increase their productivity must involve technology in their operations. Technology also eases and fastens communications among all sorts of business members through the internet and helps even the small businesses to reach out to the larger market that is international. Businesses have come out to appreciate the highly positive impact of technology in their businesses but they have also identified the negative impact which are about to see in this post below. No one can deny the fact that technology has been put such a highly positive impact to the enhancement of business but it is also important to discuss its negative impact in order to find solutions to it.

• Loss of interpersonal business interactions

Because of the overly increased rate at which people use technology in businesses people are no longer paying attention to importance of interpersonal interactions in the work place. With internet technology like Skype, web conferences (webinars), and online chat room among other communication soft ware it has become overly easy for business to hold meetings without necessarily meeting in person. This way they find it easier holding meetings from wherever they are instead of everyone collecting up in one place to discuss issues, but much as this is very convenient for individuals it is not good for business relationships. Reason being when you don’t meet up with someone physically you miss out on the gestures and body movements that that are more convincing and it is quite easy to misunderstand each other. Because of the lack of proximity during meetings, the focus that is experienced in fact to face interactions is missed out on which is all a result of technology.

• Unnecessary competition

Another great negative impact of technology is the rise in unnecessary competition which has ended up pushing the small businesses completely out of the operation. Small businesses today find it very difficult to compete with larger stores or even equally small stores that operate their businesses online reason being all consumers have shifted to either buying staff through the internet or larger stores that offer cheaper prices. Considering the fact that small businesses offer a little higher prices due to the high costs of production that they face, this has diverted their clients to other businesses that operate with technology that offer products cheaply since they face lower costs of production. A good example would be no small or local business can compete with Amazon.com which a huge online store with millions and millions of clients.

• A lot of spam (unwanted email messages)

Spam can also be called unwanted electronic mail messages or email messages that are uncalled-for, with the increase in use of technology in businesses spam messages have greatly increases which in turn leads to leakage of business’s private and sensitive information. The mere fact that businesses over depend on using emails as an efficient and quick to communicate with various partners it becomes very easy to confuse a spam for being an important message which negatively affects the business sector.

• Reduce employee motivation

According to findings from a research conducted by a professor by the names of Howard Besser from New York university, it was discovered that the technologies that companies use these days for example soft ware to monitor employee’s behavior causes great distrust of employees in the managers. If a manager can go as far as using such technology it is a clear sign that they don’t have the confidence and trust they should have in their workers and this greatly demoralizes workers. Studies about work place behavior show that a worker is extremely motivated and encouraged to be responsible and more productive when they are respected and trusted by their superiors. Much as managers install this technology for various reasons, employees will all the same feel like they are not being trusted.

• High insecurity

Technology has increased the levels of insecurity in conducting businesses reason there are so many hackers and wrong doers all over the internet that are eagerly waiting to mess up people’s businesses. These use people’s personal information which they can easily access with the use of cookies to make wrong money transfers and divert consumer’s money for their own selfish reasons. Every year cases of theft and robbery through the internet keep increasing and they are not only harming the consumers but the business owners too. With so many criminals all over the internet operating businesses through technology gets more and more risky every other time.

• Too much duplication

With technology anything is possible and this is actually why there are too many fake products being sold today. Businesses have all the machines they need to make high copies of original products and sell them to people assuring them that they are buying real authentic products. For example, Samsung as one of the best telephone companies comes up with exquisite original phones every other year but because of the technological advancements, other fake companies duplicate their phones and label them original Samsung phones. One has to be extremely keen and sharp to identify a fake or duplicate from the original because the duplicators are putting in a lot of technology to ensure that they are not discovered and this besides putting consumer’s money at risk, it also damages names of big brands that they have spent years and years building.

• Over Dependency

Businesses are overly ignoring people’s ability to get creative and focusing on the technological advancements and this is all because business owners are overly dependent on technology. For example even the simple statistics that can be done without the use of a calculator are now being done with a calculator because everyone is too obsessed with how easy technology makes their tasks. Everyone doesn’t want to go any extra mile to test their brain and see how creative it can actually be since they have soft ware, a computer or a phone that they can use. This in the end has retarded people’s ability to get creative and unique without the help of technological devices.

OTHER NEGATIVE IMPACTS OF TECHNOLOGY

In the first section of this post I have explained the negative impact of technology but only in the business sector however technology has so many other impacts that are not necessarily on business in particular but on all other aspects of life that are very important. Any business owner would definitely be interested in understanding all the negativities that come along with using technology before installing t in their business. Here are more of those negative impacts of technology………….

• Leads to serious health conditions; there is no way you can be able to run a business if you are not in perfect health condition therefore you need to be aware of the health hazards that may result from using technology. Headaches, neck pain, chest pain and back pain are some of the commonest outcomes of constant use of technology. Every time you bend to look at your phone and type with the computer you strain your neck, back and this at times also causes pain in the chest. Due to the light produced by technological devices, sometimes there is need to strain the eyes which causes headache and poor eyesight. Also people who frequently use headphones, ear buds and ear phones are likely to suffer hearing problems.
• Increase in energy consumption; not all but many of these technological devices consume energy and the rate at which people use them makes it even worse. The most commonly used devices are laptops, television screens, radios, tabs and phones which work when plugged in or need to charged very often. This has caused a great increase in energy consumption and thus increased electricity bills and as we all know high expenditure is one major causes of business failure.
• Social isolation; because of the high rate at which people are exposed to technological devices, the rate of social isolation has greatly increased since everyone barely has time to talk to the other. People are busy enjoying talking strangers through social media, others spend of their time playing games on the phones and computers, others watching screens for new devices therefore with all of this going on there is no time to talk personally with a friend, workmate or family member. Technology is too bad to the extent that it has caused people to text or emails each other when they are just a short distance away from each other. People only have time for themselves and their devices.
• Lack of safety especially for the children; unlike before where kids were safe as long as they were well confined inside their homes, today it is very easy for tormentors to reach out to people more so children who are really vulnerable. Through the internet, cyber bullying is on the high as bullies can easily get to their target which is very worrying for the safety of the young generation.
• Increase in levels of deceit; with all this technology in place it is extremely hard to know who is telling the truth because all people use the internet for is tell lies. There are too many fake profiles, fake accounts and theft of identity where people pretend to be who they aren’t. With all of these lies it is very for someone innocent to communicate with a very dangerous criminal without even noticing it.
• Unhealthy sleeping habits; with technology people are even ignoring the time they are supposed to sleep, some are too caught up chatting on different social media platforms like Face book, Whatsapp, twitter and so much more while others stay up very late playing play station games and so many others which is very dangerous for someone’s thinking ability. People can no longer give their brains enough time to rest and start afresh the next day. Some people even wake up in the middle of the night to check their phones which is very bad because the light from phone makes you lose your sleep.
• Too much distraction; technology causes a lot of distraction, today a person can spend hours texting with friends on Whatsapp or face book but not spend just half a minute in the library to read an important book. Additionally, people of all ages can easily access all kinds of information, videos, movies, pictures and so much more which is greatly damaging the young generation especially those that are below age. Through the internet kids watch all kinds of pornographic content that is negatively affecting how kids grow.
• Addiction; people have worsened from being dependent to being completely addicted to technology and this has manifested from the way people use gadgets everywhere they go even where it is not necessary. People lately can’t put their hands off their phones, tabs and many others, they text at work, in church, during business meeting, all through leisure time at home and so on and so forth. Just like some people are addicted to drugs, technology has also become an addiction for others.
• Loss of morality and empathy; through televisions and the internet all sorts of behaviors are published as normal which is a really bad thing because it has led to a lot of immorality in society and more so among the younger kids. With such platforms people don’t really care about others anymore, one can post their nude pictures all over the internet without caring what people will say or what impact it has on others.

In conclusion, considering how helpful technology has been to businesses in terms of increasing productivity and ease of work, it is ideal better yet necessary for any business to engage in using technology. However everyone needs to keep in minds that technology is meant to be a supplement or tool that is used to drive businesses. The business owner must have full control of how to use technology in their business instead of leaving technology in control because it can turn out disastrous if not well handled. Despite the negative impacts that we have just looked in this post, technology creates a much better platform for businesses to grow.