Many have heard the claim that “robots will take over the world.” When most people say this, they are joking, but could this become a reality? The extreme and fast advancement of technology raises concerns for the workforce, social interactions in society and the human race as a whole. Clearly technologies such as the wheel, tools and vehicles have greatly assisted our society in progressing, but electronic technology is what has gone too far.  Many people already heavily depend on these electronic technologies in most aspects of their lives. If these technologies continue to advance at the alarming rate that they are, many people will learn to completely depend on them in every aspect of life. Many of these extreme advancements will also raise unemployment rates, and in extreme cases, cause people to lose their sense of purpose because robots and technology will do everything they once did in life. The extreme advancement of technology will have a positive impact on the human race in very few ways. Many of the changes that will occur with this advancement of technology will be negative towards society in ways that concern employment and sociability. Things that humans do on a daily basis will be different and life itself will begin to shift into something vastly different than what humans are used to today. 

The main thing that these electronic technologies are negatively affecting and will continue to negatively affect is jobs. Electronic technology is creating a large increase in unemployment in many areas, but largely areas of retail. Though many retail jobs are filled by teenagers and young adults as a part-time and temporary job, that is not always the case. Some adults depend solely on their job at Target or their small boutique or juice shop they own. With the extreme increase in technology, it is possible for one to do all of their shopping online. Even when people do go into stores to shop, sometimes they do not even interact with a human. More and more grocery stores are implementing the self-checkout method where a human employee is only required for supervision and assistance when something goes wrong with the technology. Many people love and only chose to use these self-checkout methods, and while they are efficient, they will eventually completely replace the job of the cashier. Grocery stores have already begun to let cashier employees go due to the increase in self-checkout and the fact that you can literally order your groceries online through websites like Jet.com and have them delivered to your house. In 2008, an extra 1.1 million Americans working in retail lost their jobs and this number has only continued to rise. Alana Semuels believes that this rise in unemployment is due to retailers being encouraged to transform their stores to do more with less hands (Semuels). Grocery store owners and employees have seen a large change in the way stores are run and even seen a large decrease in human employment in retail due to the new electronic technology advancements. 

 It is not just grocery stores that increased technology is negatively affecting. With the growing popularity of websites like amazon, and online shopping, many people feel no need to go out to the mall or the stores and go shopping. More recently, developers have created a robot that now works as a receptionist at a university. This robot can do nearly everything a human can: “Nadine does not only meet and greet visitors, smile, make eye contact and shake hands, but she can even recognise past guests and spark up conversation based on previous chats” (Knapton). While these new robots can somehow show some emotion, it does indeed take away a more personal feeling of having a sweet old woman scan your items at the supermarket and ask you about your day, for those like myself who enjoy that. Consumers who find joy in personal interaction throughout daily tasks such as shopping, the increase in technology will take away this part of the day that they enjoy. Most people think of robots as something of the future, but as we can see in robots like Nadine, and a robot called Kiva, the future is now. Some companies have even already implemented or are working on implementing robots into their workforce. Approximately “320 thousand industrial robots were sold in the last two years” (Rotman). Rotman wrote that article in 2013, and the rate that industrial robots are sold at now has greatly risen. In 2012 and 2013, 320 thousand industrial robots were sold. In 2015 alone, 254 thousand robots were sold (Executive Summary World Robotics 2016 Industrial Robots). An almost 100 thousand robots sold increase in two years is significant. People do not realize how quickly these robots and technologies are being integrated into daily life and work. People always see robots as something in the future, but the future seems to be now, and before they know it, as exaggerated and cliché as it sounds, these things are going to be running the world. 

Another area in which unemployment rates are rising is cabs and buses. In large cities such as New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia, the streets are flooded with yellow cabs and large buses used for transportation. Many of those cab and bus drivers are losing business due to rideshare apps such as “Uber” and “Lyft.” People download these apps on their phone and hook their credit card up to them and with the push of a button can be picked up within minutes. Without this technology, they would have to stand on the side of the road and wave their arms and yell for a cab to pick them up, and then actually pull out cash or their credit card out of their wallet to pay. With Uber, it tells app users exactly how long they will be waiting for their car but one never knows how long they will be waiting for a cab. How inconvenient. Though Uber and Lyft actually create jobs for those over 21 with a driver’s license, it has taken many jobs and lots of money away from cab drivers in big cities. Many would ask, why don’t taxi drivers just switch over to uber? In order to drive for Uber you must have a car with a model newer than 2000, have a sedan that can seat at least 4 passengers including the driver, have state-issued licsene plates and use a car that has not previously been used for taxi-related services. This is something that many taxi drivers, who live off their taxi income, cannot do. They also must have car insurance under their name, submit to vigorous background checks, and will only be paid a portion of the money they bring in through rides (“Becoming An Uber Driver”). Most Uber drivers are driving as a part-time, side job, while most taxi drivers are driving for a living. “…the way [Uber is] doing business, they’re basically destroying the taxi industry. They’re making drivers slaves for them because we have no options”” (Kim). Unless technology somehow reverses itself, there will come a day when you will walk through New York City and see no yellow cabs, which to many city-goers and advertisers, is an NYC photo staple. 

Amazon, a website on which you can order anything and everything online and have it delivered to your house the next day, has put many people out of their jobs. Amazon continues to install technologies that will further the alarming and extreme increasing unemployment rate. They cause many retail chains to lose business as they sell just about everything (even toilet paper). This is not necessarily just amazon that has done this, it is also large chain convenience-like stores that you cannot go anywhere without seeing such as Walmart and Target. Though Amazon is different; it does not require people to leave their house. Amazon also wants to completely do away with delivery trucks (that means their drivers, too) and employ a drone system to drop off packages. They slowly but surely “[have] already killed thousands of jobs previously at brick and mortar chains that could not keep up with the trend towards online sales” (Marks). While Amazon currently has some factory workers to retrieve items and box them, this will soon change with the installment of robots. Robots have advanced much quicker than most think. One specifc robot, the “Kiva,” can do just about everything a factory worker can do, and will single-handedly sweep the jobs up from those who work in a similar setting to the Amazon factory. The Kiva is designed to “scurry across large warehouses, fetching racks of ordered goods and delivering the products to humans who package the orders,” and according to Rotman, “a warehouse equipped with Kiva robots can handle up to four times as many orders as a similar un-automated warehouse, where workers might spend as much as 70 percent of their time walking about to retrieve goods” (Rotman). The good news is that Kiva will not sweep out all factory jobs, humans still need to assist in the packaging process, as Rotman said. While many jobs have already been taken and many businesses shut down due to the increase in online shopping, even those who work in factories as item runners and stock takers and retail employees at companies who participate in online shopping are now at risk of losing their jobs due to this extreme advancement in technology that shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon. 

Companies such as Facebook, Google and Amazon have already begun to monopolize their respective markets. John Danaher, in his article, uses the term “winner takes all” or “superstar” about companies to describe how being the second best company in your market is never good enough. Does anyone ever search something on Yahoo? These companies—Facebook, Google, Amazon, etc.—don’t have many employees. They only hire the technologically savvy, never just an ordinary person looking for a job. Danaher points out that if these extremely successful companies are already doing so well with so few employees, the future holds a lot of unemployment: “If it takes less labour input to capture an entire market—even a new one—then new markets won’t translate into increased levels of employment” (Danaher). Soon enough there will be more and more online business for most things we currently have in real life. This will not only cause a rise in unemployment, it will put stores and companies completely out of business. There will eventually by an entire transformation or switch to electronic and technological business. Once a switch is made and a company is completely electronic or online, there will be absolutely no need for human workers, thus causing unemployment.  The jobs that will be/already are vulnerable and at risk are “butchers, secretaries and stenographers, payroll clerks, bank tellers, file clerks, cashiers, typists, pharmacists, bookkeepers, postal clerks” (Rotman). Though there are other reasons and factors for unemployment other than matters of technology, there will still be a large amount of jobs lost due to the advancement and installment of new electronic technologies. But what about the people and companies who currently do not even use technology? Though some folks may prefer to use what will then be “old-fashioned,” none of these companies which do not use advanced technology will be bringing in enough revenue to survive and advance in the business world and will be forced to close due to lack of funds. There are already many things in today’s society that require electronic technology, and this will only continue until nothing can be done without the use or help of this technology. 

Most humans live to work, and work to live. What happens when there is no more work to be done by humans? Many people think that that would be an ideal world, never having to work again. This could seriously be a reality considering that “before the end of this century, 70 percent of today’s occupations will likewise be replaced by automation” (Kelly). If humans work to live, but work gets taken away, how will they be able to live? First of all, where will they get their money? Some people suggested the idea of an Unconditional Basic Income (UBI) when/if all human jobs are completely done away with. This is an extremely complicated and questionable idea as many things would change such as a progressive tax having to be employed in order to fund a monthly salary for 200 million Americans over the age of 21 (Mazie). Even if a UBI is employed within our society, what will people do all day? Yes, there will be plenty of time for leisure, but with a predicted UBI of $1000 per month, there is not much one can do for leisure when they still have to buy groceries, clothing, pay bills, etc. Though a UBI could be good for those in poverty, they would still be well below everyone else, and complete dependence on anyone—whether it is the government or not—is not good. 

People normally chose a career path based on something they are passionate about or interested in. This concept of vocation, instead of just doing mindless work, is sometimes what keeps people going. Many people who work in positions of health care, education, etc. are extremely passionate about what they do, and they absolutely love their work. But if these jobs are taken away by robots, what will these people do? Many surgeons are already being replaced by robots and machines, and this will only continue. While many other jobs just cannot be replaced because there is no way for robots to be creative and pitch new ideas, many human assistant-like jobs will be taken by robots. Those people who love their job will start to feel completely lost or useless without it. Though it doesn’t seem like the biggest concern about technology advancing, it should be. Those people who enjoy going to work every day and absolutely love their jobs will start to feel like they have no purpose in life because they will no longer be doing what they love most. Knapton poses a good question, “If machines are capable of doing almost any work humans can do, what will humans do?” (Knapton). If all this technology is being created for the convenience of humans but it is taking away many of humans’ purposes, doing what they love, what is the point? Once technology advances so far, the only use for humans will be to create more and more technology. Nearly everything that humans know of and do will eventually be done by robots and similar technology. This cannot be a positive thing for the human race, becoming nearly useless. Humans will just simply exist without any work to do. While they can do lots of leisurely activities, how is that productive towards society. It seems as if society would just crumble and there would be little structure in life without work. Clearly, electronic technology potentially taking away work could be unfavorable in more ways than just losing money. Losing a job can be detrimental as it often sends people in depression and seriously affects family life. Is that all worth it just to have “more efficient” and electronic technology oriented businesses?

It has become more and more common to see kids as young as eight years old completely attached to some sort of a device—whether it is an iPad, their parents iPhone, and maybe even their own iPhone. Many teenagers biggest worry is how many likes they will get on an Instagram picture and many spend more time taking pictures to post instead of enjoying the moment they are living in, making it difficult for many teenagers to leave their phone off or not be doing something on it at almost all times. A common thing to see today is families out to eat at a restaurant, all sitting around a table each on their own device, not even speaking to each other or looking up. Teenagers and children (and even adults) are becoming more and more disconnected to the real world—what is going on right in front of their eyes—because they are too connected to what is going on inside their phone and on the internet. Many people (people of all ages) have become fully dependent on their technology. I’ll even admit that it sometimes feels like the end of the world when my phone is dead. In Abha Dawesar’s TEDtalk titled Living in the “digital now”, she tells the story of living in powerless New York City after hurricane Sandy. She noticed that people—herself included—would sit underneath tables, stand under an umbrella in the rain, and many more absurd, silly things just to plug their phones and laptops in. She came to a quick realization during this time that our devices are just as important as food and shelter to us. We depend on them to “keep us connected” and some people truly cannot live without them. Some even said “that they ‘‘simply can’t function’’ without having access to some form of social media” (Hoffman). As technology continues to advance and become something that does our work for us, does everyday tasks for us and essentially replaces us, humans will become completely dependent on it in just about every aspect of life.

Millennials and the upcoming generation behind them are most recently known as being “lazy, unproductive and self-obsessed” (Herman). Speaking on behalf of myself and many millennials I know, they are not all like that. There certainly are some millennials who fit that stereotype, but of course not all of them. The thing that has made so many people think of young people as lazy is technology. We’d rather shop online than go and walk around the mall. We’d rather order in than go out to a restaurant. We even created an app that helps in delivering food from places that do not offer delivery options. I am certainly not implying that this laziness found in some young people is causing a decrease in business, I am stating that technology has raised a generation of unproductivity. We have the entire world at the tip of our fingers, yet many chose to use it to obsess over celebrities, complain, post pictures, put others down, and more. “Our methods of communication, socialization, employment and even recreation are becoming more influenced from technological and electronic perspectives, gradually reducing the need for actual in-person interaction” (Hoffman). Many millennials and young people feel no need to have in-person interactions. The advancement of technology and social media becoming so popular has significantly decreased the real-life social skills of many young people and teenagers. When teenagers stay inside and stare at a screen all day and interact with little to no humans, how are they going to build social skills? If all they know how to do is message people online, they are going to be incapable of holding conversations in real life. There has also been a significant decrease in community service work done by teenagers and young adults due to the fact that they seem to value social media and their devices more than they do helping others. Though these two varaibles may not be directly related, voluntary (not required through an organization) community service done by teenagers has significantly decreased. Many teenagers do not want to participate in community service unless they have to do a certain number of hours in order to stay in an organization, or get out of trouble.  In a recent study done at Metropolitan State University, it was found that “Participants indicated that as their use of social media increased significantly over time, their perception of the importance and relevance of the viability of community service engagement programs reduced and was less meaningful to them” (Hoffman). So many young people today would rather sit inside and scroll through Instagram, Facebook or Twitter than give back to their community through service work, or even go outside at all. Many no longer find community service important, they truly value and find electronics and technology as something extremely important. Most would say that they cannot live without it. Technology’s rise in today’s society has had a extreme negative impact on the overall productivity of young people.

As technology advances frighteningly fast, many people are coming to the realization that they could possibly lose their jobs, possibly even their sense of purpose, and become more anit-social and dependent on technology than they are now. As Stephen Hawking once said, “The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race” (ZÅotowski). This development and replacement of humans with artificial intelligence has very few benefits. While they may work more efficiently than humans, what will humans do? Humans will be jobless, poor, dependent and completely lost. Technology is a threat to the human race in more ways than one. Elon Musk also believes this, as he once said “If I had to guess what the biggest threat to our existence is, it's probably artificial intelligence” (ZÅotowski). In the grand scheme of things, the extreme advancement of technology and “artificial intelligence” will make a weaker population and create more problems than solutions, no matter how fast and/or efficient they may work. Many, if not all of the changes that will occur alongside the advancement of technology will be unfavorable to our society concerning employment and sociability. Things that humans currently do on a daily basis will be altered greatly and life itself will begin to change into something incredibly different than how humans live life today.
