What Invention has done more harm than good?

Inventions. I wouldn't be writing this right now without inventions. But some inventions have created more harm than good.

I came up with this topic after seeing a few posts on Facebook about what inventions had done more hard than good. I loved reading the comments, because this is such a debatable topic. And I love a good debate!

Some of the answers to this question included:

• Computers
• Internet
• COVID-19
• Social Media
• Money
• Religion
• Guns
• Pesticides

All good answers and most, if not all have pros and cons.

Lets have a look at a couple of these answers.

Social Media - Has it done more harm than good?

Social media has definitely changed the way we interact as a human race. Ironically the 'social' aspect of social media has made us somehow less social. In my opinion anyway. People don't interact the same way any more. People are glued to their phones and enjoy reading about and commenting on what other people are doing and saying, but never actually have many real life, in person conversations. It's sad to see and definitely harmful in my opinion.

Someone on my Facebook wall made a post the other day about them having an hour and a half conversation on the phone with their sister and how it made them feel so much better. They then proceeded to tell everyone reading the post that they loved their sister. That's great! Tell her then while you are on the phone to her! You don't need to make a post about it. (Sorry, I'm rambling a little. But things like that just make me want to face-palm)🤦‍♀️

However social media has also done an awful lot of good in other ways. People can spread messages extremely easily and fast. For example, a child goes missing. Within minutes a whole community can be aware of this missing child and help find them and bring them to safety.

We can quickly and easily raise awareness of local or global issues. As an example, Greta Thunberg brought issues associated with climate change to the fore front due to the help of social media.

I found an article with a list of pros and cons of social media here.

Guns - Have they done more harm than good?

I will be honest from the outset here, I am not a fan of people owning guns. Never have and never will be. But that's my personal opinion and not what we are discussing here.

As we see in America, guns are a thing. There is always an argument over whether people should be able to own them or not. The one thing I have learned about this is that owning guns is a cultural thing in America and it isn't something that will be changed over night. It is the norm. They sell them in Walmart. A grocery store!

For some people, owning a gun gives them a sense of security. But with so much irresponsible gun usage, personally I think the misuse of guns outweighs all the other reasons to own one.

A couple of facts about gun crime in America.

• There were a total of 615 mass shootings in America in 2020.
• 521 people were killed in these mass shootings in 2020. (This is the number of people killed in mass shooting only).
• Over 19,000 people died as a result of being shot in America in 2020. The highest amount of deaths as a result of someone using a gun to shoot someone, in over 20 years. (Source: Time.com)

Lastly lets look at COVID-19

This will be a quick and brief personal answer to whether COVID-19 has done more harm than good due to the fact that we don't yet know if this can be counted legitimately as an answer to the question 'What Invention has done more harm than good?'

There are many conspiracy theories that believe COVID-19 was man made and as I am not a scientist, I cannot 100% answer say whether or not COVID-19 is man-made or in this case, an invention. My honest opinion is that it is not man-made.

However, lets say, for the purpose of this article, COVID-19 is an invention.

Well firstly, to date, it has killed over 4 million people worldwide, not to mention the long term health effects it has had on people and indirect effects such as job losses, suicide and economic problems.

However, there have been a few things that we have seen from COVID-19 that have been positive. We have seen families getting to know each other in a way they may never have before due to being in lock-down. We have seen a dramatic reduction in pollution and realised how much we were actually producing. We have been able to reassess our lives and figure out what is really important to us. More people working from home, which meant less traffic on the roads. Which also led to less traffic accidents and deaths.

These lists could go on for both the pros and cons of COVID-19, but I will stop there.

As an end to this article, and maybe at some point you may be able to leave your own comment and view points below for further discussion, I will ask you to think about the question: 'What Invention has done more harm than good?' If nothing else, it is a great conversation starter.