Technology is human ingenuity applied to the development of tools, machines and systems for enhancing human environment and solving problems. The prehistoric invention of stone tools increased the available sources of food, and modern technological developments such as airplanes, automobiles and the Internet have lessened geographical barriers and allowed humans to communicate on a global scale. Despite the positive impact of some forms of technology, others have had negative effects on human well-being and society.
Technology has a broad range of applications in the business world. From improving the efficiency of operations, making communication between teams easier, or helping businesses to create a unique selling point that differentiates them from their competition – it is an important resource for every industry.
Technicism is the belief that a specific technology will solve all of society’s problems, and it is often accompanied by an over-reliance on and/or overconfidence in the technology itself. In contrast, a more measured approach to technology allows its users to weigh its merits against other options and alternatives.
Technological progress is a process of prioritizing certain paths and neglecting other pathways, but the choice of those paths is always deliberate. Consequently, any technology that is widely adopted will automatically scale up the type of behavior it makes easier and thereby deprioritize other paths. For example, when digital cameras became prevalent, they shifted the pathway to photographs away from analogue film cameras and darkrooms, along with their inefficient but gratifying culture of painstakingly physically retouching images for hours.