The Good, The Bad, and the Beatings

Today’s society is changing in so many ways, most of them all due to technology. It is shocking how fast the world is evolving in these areas. Fifty years ago, cameras took several minutes of still exposure to gain a frame. They were big, bulky, and hard to move around. Same with cell phones. Just to get everything inside to enable cells to send and receive calls they had to be as “big as a brick” and weigh just as much. Today, however, things are completely opposite. Not only are cameras tiny, portable, and immediate, phones are slim as paper, technology friendly, and the two have been combined! One can take photographs, talk on the phone, anything he or she wants from a small piece of technology that everyone holds.

All in all, it is a hard decision to make on whether devices like cell phones, digital cameras, or other technology enhance society or hinder it. There are so many factors to consider regarding them. Technology is rampant in today’s society; anyone over the age of twelve has a cell phone, and those younger know everything top to bottom about things like computers. But to say no one has benefited is a lie. There is a little bit of a “happy medium” in which some are helped and others hindered.

One example is in the case of “police brutality.” Now, by putting this in quotations I am not trying to convey that this does not happen. It does. There are times when police officers get out of hand. But in my opinion, technology such as cell phones or police cams enhance the instances of so called police brutality. It is all a matter of perspective and by recording a video on a cell or some sort, the truth can be twisted.

Say, for instance, you are walking down the street and see an officer arresting an African American man. It looks cool, so you pull out your phone and start recording. But then you hear yelling and the officer appears to be hitting the man, so you move in closer, a crowd coming in behind you. That night you see the clip on the news, similar to the one you shot, under a heading of police brutality, how cops get out of hand. But is that really what was seen? In recording a video, the person recording the video only sees from his or her perspective. That individual has no idea if the man being arrested was fighting, or being vulgar trying to escape. Then there is the idea that the man had seen several people recording him, so decided to “milk” the situation for what it was worth. If he pretended to be getting the worst of the deal, he will probably get off on whatever was originally being charged.

Now please, do not get me wrong. I understand that police brutality does occur, that people are hurt and attacked unwarranted. All I am asking is that people try to see this from every view. If there were not people recording the video, would the same things happen as a result? I also understand that technology is good in many ways. I have seen it. Technology fights death, poverty, cancer, betters money and communication, everything imaginable. In this sense, technology is no where near bad or damaging. But one has to remember the coasts of this.

Technology is a tricky matter. It can be limiting as well as broadening. Technology enhances communication across the world, but limits it within a home or community. Technology may fight cancer, but it may also kill people in the hunt of one cure. Using technology like cell phone videos may prove police are too harsh, but is also may let people get away with crimes, due to a sympathetic public. It is all relevant, and one must keep several aspects in mind when trying to determine the benefits or limitations of technology.