There is no doubt that technology has made our lives easier in many ways. We can now communicate with people worldwide instantly, get directions to any location, and purchase items without having to leave our homes. However, there is a downside to this increased use of technology: it can make us lazy. Due to overuse, we can become reliant on technology to do everything for us, which leads to a decrease in productivity. In this blog post, we will explore the effects of technology on our productivity and discuss ways to overcome its negative impacts.

Technology can be both a blessing and a curse.

Technology is something that we can't remove any more from our lives. Technology affects many aspects of life, such as communications, health, transportation, work, entertainment, commerce, education, etc. Moreover, technological advancements considerably changed our business in these sectors. As time goes on, new technologies pop up that make everyone's lives a lot easier and more convenient. With all the technology around us, you would expect productivity to hit an all-time high, but why do some, or many of us, still encounter productivity issues in our work and lives? That's because the many added conveniences technology brought us also came with many distractions. Being too engrossed with technology somehow made us lazy in our everyday lives, and there are various ways this manifests.

1. Entertainment at your fingertips

There's no doubt that tech provided us with many ways to entertain ourselves without going outside our homes. Our LCD TVs, Blu-ray players, video game consoles, personal computers, laptops, and cell phones provide many means of entertainment from watching TV shows and videos, playing games, chatting with somebody else, browsing multiple web pages, to simply fiddling will all kinds of apps. A cell phone is even more notorious because it is a portable device that you can take and be distracted anytime, anywhere.

On a positive note, the entertainment that we derive from such gadgets provides us with more options to entertain ourselves without going out whenever we need some rest and recreation. This aspect became evident during the ongoing COVID pandemic when many people were forced to stay inside their houses and were prohibited entry into public spaces. However, one must put everything in moderation. For example, if you can play tennis with somebody else outside, do so instead of doing the same activity in video game format.

2. Social media and communications

Have you ever tried talking with somebody else in your house using a messaging app on your computer or cell phone? The idea sounds absurd, especially if it only takes a few steps to reach your family member in a different room inside your house. However, technology altered the way we communicate with each other. There's no denying that technology allowed us to communicate with anyone from anywhere in the world. Still, at the same time, it conditioned us to use the same way of communicating with people who are nearby, people who you can give a shout out and speak in person. As a result, real-world interactions have taken a hit, and it sometimes feels like we are bots talking to each other inside a program. However, there is still something different when you speak to somebody physically, so if you can, do it instead of relying on messaging apps only.

3. Who likes to do errands?

Technology can be amazingly addictive to the point that we forget how we do things in the past and get accustomed to a faster and more convenient method of doing things. Unfortunately, this lifestyle makes us lazy because we prefer to do the things that will take less effort while still getting what we want. For example, online shopping reduces the need to go to an actual mall and have items delivered right to your doorstep. There are delivery services nowadays where it's possible to have someone order the food for you and then give it later to your house or office. If you want to read a book or some stories, you don't have to go to a library anymore. You only need to grab an e-reader and download an e-book of what you want to read. It's also possible now to do online transactions through apps and services, and you can pay bills without going to an actual branch. No one has to run errands anymore. It's pretty amazing to see how technology made running errands almost obsolete and simultaneously made us insanely lazy.

4. New ways to get distracted

Technology is supposed to free up more of our time due to its conveniences and how efficiently we can do things. However, the opposite is what's happening to many of us. Constant notifications and the ease with which we can access our devices, especially our cell phones, provide easy distractions anytime. We now have the latest equipment to help us do our tasks at the office. However, the very same computer we use to get things done can also be the one that provides distractions if we don't know how to control ourselves. Having multiple web pages open and then minimizing the nonwork-related pages when your boss is approaching is an activity many of us can relate to in everyday work. It's even more unregulated when you're doing remote work since no one is there to check on you physically. Outside of work, even our daily responsibilities can be affected if we prioritize getting distracted instead of getting things done.

One should use technology in moderation.

Technology is not supposed to be an enemy to our lives. All the advancements and knowledge we poured into developing technology are meant to make life easier and more convenient, so we can gain more time to do something else. However, many of us spend the additional time we gain to dabble even more into technology. As a result, technology has made us reliant on it. Many things involving physical activity became possible with just the push of a button or a tap on a screen. The way we interact socially and mentally was also affected.

We have to realize that technology is an aid to support us in our everyday lives. It shouldn't replace something that we did in the past. However, many companies are more inclined to take the course to yield more efficiency and financial returns, so traditional ways might have to be scrapped. So if you still have the option to do something without relying only on technology, do it. We become lazy if we let technology in large part dictate the pace of our lives. So it's essential to balance using technology and what we can do ourselves.