Is Technology Moving Faster than the Law?

Is Technology Moving Faster than the Law?

An important question to ask, but we are all so deep into our tech gadgets that we forget about ethics. Even though we are living in this advanced technology era, and we love it; should we be doing this? Just because we can create it, should we?

Technology is advancing quickly, that’s a well known fact, but where do we draw the line. Technology is moving quicker than our morals can keep up with. We have lost sight of the ethics of technology. When will our morals kick in?

Nowadays, what doesn’t move faster than ethics… People are always searching for the next shiny new thing they can wrap their hands around, yet they don’t think twice about the consequences. The faster we innovate, the faster our ethics get left behind.

In the past decades technology has fundamentally altered our lives: from the way we work to how we communicate to how we fight wars. These technologies have not been without controversy, and many have sparked intense debates.

The narcissism that social media has created has affected the way we treat others. Not only are we missing out on face-to-face contact but we are using social media as a tool to tear down others. We use our social platforms to exploit ourselves, to degrade others, and to distract ourselves from the world around us.

As the internet expands, so do the issues that surround its stability and ability to constructively evolve. It is an increasing part of today’s culture, especially for teens and young adults. Our youth relies on the internet to do just about anything. It is used for schoolwork, online gaming, social networking and other popular activities.

How do we protect our children when everything can easily be accessed on the their smartphones? The lack of common agreement about the right approach to educating and protecting children provides challenges to the youth’s online experience. How do we define legal and social norms to generations to come? How do we explain to them what is appropriate when all they see on the internet are people their age posting unexplainable things.

Keeping up with technology is hard; there’s drones, driverless cars, digital media ownership, gene therapy and hundreds of gadgets that link up to just about anything. Everything that was virtually unimaginable 25 years ago is now a reality.

The gap between technology innovation and the law is rapidly widening. Whose job is it to interpret and govern these advances. Judges are simply not qualified to determine the appropriateness or effect of a tweet. Our society hasn’t gotten to that point yet, because technology is way too far in front of us!

Technology is changing very rapidly and these changes seem to be accelerating — if that’s even possible. Laws and the legal systems are also changing; they are changing the way they think and behave, but they are changing slowly.

We will always welcome innovation and the benefits it brings us. Innovation has kept us thriving, and has kept us connected. We are able to perform and do things that we have never before dreamt possible. We as a society need to keep up with these changes morally. Enjoy them, but don’t let these advances take hold of your ethics. Remain committed to sustainable development.