5.1 Beneficial and Harmful Effects

Big Idea 5.1

• 2 min read

Big Idea5

Beneficial and Harmful Effects of Technology

✅ Beneficial Effects

  • Automated Telephone Trees – Redirect calls based on needs → saves money, reduces hold time.
  • Science and Technology – MRI scanning, DNA sequencing, vaccine development → faster diagnosis, improved healthcare.
  • Access to Education – Online encyclopedias, research papers, and e-books → wide variety of information available instantly.

🎯 Popcorn Hack #1

What do you think is a beneficial effect?

  • Beneficial effects result from advancements in communication, commerce, and programming (CollegeBoard).

🚫 Harmful Effects

  • Unsafe Use & Cyberbullying
    • Young children vulnerable to scams, grooming, and inappropriate content.
    • Cyberbullying can lead to depression and anxiety.
    • Example: Tammy Rodriguez sued Meta and Snapchat after her daughter’s social media fixation led to depression and suicide.
    • Example: TikTok “blackout challenge” caused fatalities among young children.

  • Social Media – Promotes unhealthy beauty standards → depression, low self-esteem, poor mental health.

  • Technological Dilemmas (Automated Cars)
    • Beneficial: Automated cars can make split-second decisions without human hesitation.
    • Harmful: Ethical issue – should the car prioritize saving one person over five?

🎯 Popcorn Hack #2

What do you think is a harmful effect?

  • Harmful effects result from the misuse or unintended consequences of technology (CollegeBoard).

⚖️ Neutral Effects

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI)
    • Benefits:
      • Increased efficiency in analyzing data and solving problems.
      • Improves healthcare by identifying symptoms.
    • Harms:
      • AI development contributes to environmental issues (high water and energy consumption).
      • Reduces critical thinking and spreads misinformation (e.g., deepfakes).
  • UAVs/Drones
    • Benefits:
      • Useful for search and rescue, wildfire monitoring, and agriculture.
      • More efficient than helicopters.
    • Harms:
      • Privacy concerns and risk of damage (e.g., crashing into power lines).
      • Military use of drones → ethical concerns (e.g., Syria drone attack killed 89 people).
  • Gene Editing
    • Benefits:
      • Can treat genetic diseases and increase crop yields.
    • Harms:
      • Germline editing is illegal in the US → potential for harmful long-term effects.
      • Risk of unintended mutations.

🎯 Popcorn Hack #3

Pick a dilemma from above. Do you think it’s more beneficial or harmful? Why?

  • Example: AI is beneficial because it increases efficiency and helps in healthcare.

🏠 Homework Hack

Pick a beneficial or harmful effect and explain why in 5 sentences:
Social media has had a harmful effect on mental health, especially among teenagers. Platforms like Instagram and TikTok promote unrealistic beauty standards, which can lower self-esteem. Constant comparison to others leads to anxiety and depression. Studies have shown that heavy social media use is linked to poor mental health outcomes. Therefore, while social media connects people, its negative impact on mental health outweighs its benefits.