Did Inventors Of Technology Erred

Technology is one area that has really revolutionized the world in terms of ease of information searching and dissemination, ease of problem-solving, ease of doing things, ease in collaborating with others and promoted ease in communication.

Most of us still remember the days we use to send letters via post offices and it takes months to reach its destination for us to even get response, walk or travel to people’s houses just to meet their absence,Not forgetting the days we had to walk miles only to join long queues just to access the internet at cafes, waited in long queues around public phone booths just to call that special one abroad or elsewhere in another city or region.

Thankfully people worked so hard to make all these things easily accessible no matter where we find ourselves.

Technology Invention
As broad and dynamic as Technology is, it cannot really be said to have been invented by a single person. History dates back in the 1900’s that scientists and visionary thinkers at that time anticipated a “World Wireless Systems”, and in 1930’s and 1940’s Paul Otlet and Vannevar Bush conceived of mechanized searchable storage systems of books and media.

Fast forward in the 1960s APRANET funded by the US Department of defence created a workable prototype of the Internet where computers were able to communicate on a single network. It was explored to better it until finally in 1990 Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web, which has made it possible to access billions of computers worldwide with ease.

A Look into Internet of Things (IoT)
This is the network of physical devices, smartphones, vehicles, home appliances and other items embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators and connectivity which enable these things to connect and exchange data. It is estimated that by 2020 IoT devices will increase to 30billion.

Privacy, Safety and Security
I remember in one of my IT Security class I was told “the safest device is one that is offline or not connected to the internet or not attached with any removable media.” Sounds fascinating but that’s a fact.

We spend 45%-65% of our time surfing the internet each day with our smartphones, computers and other IoT devices, we upload much of our data on our social media handles which is easily accessible by the public domain, so we can no longer protect our privacy because it is already out there for the bad guys to get at us or use it to do whatever they want.

Social Media in its advent is not bad but as the saying goes to every pros there is a cons, Social media may have its good side but depending on how Users use it can make it a bad tool.

The positive side of social media is numerous; collaboration, marketing, promotion, reporting bad incidences, meeting old and new friends, sharing ideas, learning and many more, but the trend is changing these days which is very alarming and if care is not taken it will get out of hand.

My decision to write this article was informed by a recent video I saw circulating online which involved a child being harassed by some Teachers opposed to teach them sense. (Not to say Teachers alone do that or all Teachers are like that).

In the video this child took a textbook which probably may not be his and the teachers could be heard from the background asking the child to read what was written on the book and the child was like he cannot read, so they asked him what he wanted to use the book for and he said he was going to use it as a toilet paper, though funny but I expected the teachers to correct him than to film and share for public consumption.

The bitter part is you will get people who are supposed to know better help spread it like wildfire without a second thought of will they have shared it if it was their child or family member? What happened to censorship and privacy of especially children? This child can be the president or a Statesman someday and can this damage be reversed? It never happens to children of the rich but always the less privileged in the society.

Ghana Education Service and the State Security Agencies mandated to protect the rights and privacy of people must really address issues of this sort because it can really undermine our educational system especially that of children.

One may say many of such videos have emerged over the years so why now, but as the saying goes there are time and season for everything.

Notwithstanding, some Teachers and Individuals are doing good like the teacher whose photo emerged when he drew Microsoft word on a blackboard just to facilitate the teaching of ICT and through that, it impacted the school positively with Microsoft coming to their aid, such positive news needs a standing ovation.

Recently that of the video of a policeman harassing a defenceless woman whose crime was to go and withdraw her hard earned money was also some of the positives we can use social media to our advantage.

As long as the internet is here to stay we should focus much on its positives rather than the negatives to help build a better nation Ghana.

Long Live Ghana!!
Alex Ayensu Darpah (Rdarps ICT Consult)