Blog Assigment 1: Is technology making us smarter or dumb?

It’s amazing how much technology has grown in the last couple of decades. There is an important question that we must ask ourselves, is technology making us smarter or is it having the complete opposite effect. This is such an important question that we must ask ourselves as well as the generations to come.

With technology comes the understanding that we have to learn how to use technology in order to utilize it correctly. With that being said I believe that with technology, we are becoming smarter because we are learning more methods while still learning the skills that are needed for everyday life with our occupation. I currently work in a pharmacy and along with medical advances; pharmacy has definitely taken advantage of technology. In the pharmacy that I currently work at, we have an automatic dispensing machine that labels, counts out the pills, and makes sure the correct pills are dispensed. Although, the pharmacy that I work for doesn’t have the same machine in the article, I believe that it has significantly reduced the number of medication errors that have been dispensed. (http://www.stlukes-sf.sutterhealth.org/news/enews/0206_pharmtech.html). In this article, it states that there is an 80% reduction in medication errors because of this dispensing machine and with all the medical errors that happen that is a huge decrease.

With that being said, there is also too much emphasis to use technology to replace the work force. Behind technology there has to be a human who programs it and with that comes errors. I don’t necessarily think that technology is making us dumb; however I do think that it makes us lazy and not utilize our brains as we once did. When I work in the pharmacy I understand there is so much a pharmacist has to learn. However, when a person has a question about a prescription I often notice the pharmacist reaching for the computer or their personal palm pocket computer to try to get the answer for the client. What happens when the computers are down and the pharmacist can’t retrieve the information? Back in the day before computers, the pharmacists either would have the knowledge in their heads or they would reach for a text book.

I believe that technology is making us smarter but at the same time is also making us lazy. When it comes to pharmacy you have to look at the rate of error with the automated dispensing machine vs. having more human personnel. Humans make mistakes more so than machines do. If a machine is being utilized and is saving the lives of people, wouldn’t you think that technology is making us smarter? I would say so!