D.A.V.

Public School,
Chandrasekharpur

A Project Report on

In present times,
Is technology making us less
humane and dull?
For
ALS Project, Term 2, English core

Presented By:
• Abhijit Baral
• Aditya Ghosh
• Ansuman Sahu
• Shailja Agarwal [L]
• Sharanya Baidya.
Guided by: Mrs. Bharati Pradhan

Class XI SUPER 40 (2021-22)

 STUDENT PLANNING SHEET
Goal: To find out whether technology has made us less humane.

Objectives: Who? Abhijit, Aditya, Ansuman, Shailja and Sharanya

What? We are studying the impact of technology on humanity.
Where? At home/in neighbourhood/
When? Across January-February 2022
Why? To conclude if technology is making us less humane.
How? We will do a quantitative survey through google forms. Then,
we’ll take a qualitative interview.

Tasks: Time:
1. Data collection on topic 3-4 days
2. Online Survey through Google forms 3 days
3. Interview 2 days
4. Preparing Report 4-5 days
5. Editing and Compilation 1 week

Team:
• Shailja Agarwal [L]
• Abhijit Baral
• Aditya Ghosh
• Ansuman Sahu
• Sharanya Baidya

Tools:
Equipments: Google forms, Google docs, Google Meet, MS excel and MS Word.

Materials: Articles, Books, Photos, Spreadsheet, Pie charts.

Information: Report prepared from online survey and interview.

Resources: Internet, Online Survey and Interview.

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 ACTION PLAN TEMPLATE
Smart Steps needed How will What Who will be How will Deadlines
Goal to achieve you do resources responsible? you know
your goal this task? will I when you
need to are
do this? successful?
When our
TO FIND OUT WHETHER TECHNOLOGY IS MAKING US LESS HUMANE

A quantitative By doing Google collected data

study of an online forms, Aditya will match 5th
people’s survey MS Excel, Ghosh from internet February,
thinking out Social
and research
2022
technology. media
articles.

sites
A qualitative When our
study of By taking MS word Ansuman collected data 5th
people’s interviews Sahu will match February,
thinking out from internet 2022
technology and research
articles.
Reading When our
Research on articles, Internet, Sharanya collected data 5th
Technology data Quora, Baidya. will match February,
and data collection Books, from internet 2022
collection. Articles and research
articles.

Generating Studying When our

report and the MS excel, Abhijit collected data
conclusion responses Google Baral will match 5th
from the of the forms. from internet February,
and research
responses of survey 2022
articles.
the survey
Preparing By When our
cover page, reading MS Word, Shailja collected data
methodology, the Google Agarwal will match 5th
pie-charts, responses, Docs from internet February,
and research
editing and collected 2022
articles.
compilation data &
merging
them

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 INDEX
SL No TITLE PAGE No

1. COVER PAGE 01
2. STUDENT PLANNING 02
SHEET
3. ACTION PLAN 03
4. INDEX 04
5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 05
6. OBJECTIVES 06

7. BACKGROUND 07

8. INTRODUCTION 08

9. TECHNOLOGY ADVERSE 09-15

IMPACT ON HUMANITY
10. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 16

11. REPORT 17-22

12. INTERVIEW OF PARENTS 23-24
AND NEIGHBOURS
13. CONCLUSION 25

14. BIBLIOGRAPHY 26

15. CERTIFICATE OF 27
COMPLETION

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
A project is a golden opportunity for learning and self-development. We
consider ourselves fortunate and privileged to have such wonderful mentors
guide us through the journey for the completion of the project.

Our sincere thanks goes to Dr. K.C. Satapathy, Principal, DAV

Chandrasekharpur, Bhubaneswar, who despite being extraordinarily busy
took time out to address us and guide us.

We express our heartfelt gratitude to our English teacher Mrs. Bharati

Pradhan, for her patience and belief in us. Her exemplary investment in the
complete process, constant encouragement and insightful feedback helped us
to achieve our objective(s).

Next, we are cordially thankful to our friends, relatives circle, neighbors for
giving us the opportunity to research about the topic through their valuable
opinions. Without their help and participation, it would have been impossible
for us to research and complete this project.

Lastly, we would like to thank our family members and especially our parents
whose inevitable support and opinions helped us complete the project within
the deadline successfully.

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 OBJECTIVES

This project work explored the extent of use of technology(internet and

smartphones specifically) by people today and thus from results and instances
we intended to prove that technology is grasping us, making us duller than
smarter, and most importantly making us less humane. In this project, we
have not focused on proving whether technology is a boon or bane, we
intended to prove that :- “Technology is making us less humane.”

The following objectives we have tried to research in our project:

a) the degradation of moral values as a result of overuse of technology.

b) the degradation of ethics, behavior, compassion, empathy and love
for others.
c) the over-dependency of human beings on technology making people
lazy and dumber.
d) surfing the internet for researching degrading our imagination and
creativity, not developing our thought process.
e) Segregates our bond with nature and the belief in almighty.

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“ IS TECHNOLOGY MAKING US LESS HUMANE ”
PROJECT REPORT

Abstract Background :

The driving question for the project “Is technology controlling us or are
we being controlled by technology”? “Has technology degraded our
moral values, ethics”? “Has technology become only a necessity or an
addiction”?

The advent of technology has changed the dimensions of human lives

altogether. It has made our lives easy, enjoyable and exciting and it's
very true that it has now become next to impossible to live without
technology. But have we ever thought about the adverse effects on us?
Thus, it's very important for us to realize what adverse impacts
technology is having on our moral values, culture, imaginative faculty
and creativity.

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 INTRODUCTION
Technology, a word with Greek origins, is defined as, “the practical application
of knowledge in a particular area”. Technology is a word used to collectively
describe the advancements, abilities, creations, undertakings and knowledge of
mankind. While the formal meaning of technology expands into a vast many
things, we would restrict our report to the domain of modern technological
advancements like smartphones, Televisions, internet, augmented reality etc.

Man since its evolution has come a long way. The development that human life
has come through to this post-modern era was only because of their new
discoveries, inventions and mutual harmony.
But problems and potentials often go hand in hand. Every element of the
universe exhibits two faces, the constructive and the destructive one.
Technology has gathered its fair share of criticism. On the somewhat skeptical
side are certain philosophers like Herbert Marcuse and John Zerzan, who
believe that technological societies are inherently flawed. They suggest that the
inevitable result of such a society is to become evermore technological at the
cost of freedom and psychological health.

This skepticism is quite relevant in the modern days when tech. Is doing more
harm than good. As we surrender our cognitive independence to our devices in
an effort to make our lives easier, what is happening to our humanity ? Too
much dependence on tech is deteriorating humane characters like empathy,
inner peace and mental health.

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 TECHNOLOGY - ADVERSE IMPACTS ON
HUMANITY

We all know technology has indeed made our lives easy and comfortable and
there is no doubt about it. But in this project, we have rather tried to focus on
its adverse impacts i.e. technology making us less “humane” as this is one of
the rising issues of an unpeaceful world and a stagnant future ahead.

The Covid-19 pandemic has made us all realize the fact that we, the human
beings, can't live a life all alone. Human company is very important to all of us
which makes our life all the more exciting. But nowadays, the advent of
technology, specifically the internet and smartphones are grasping us which is
a very bad sign for society. The young generation is growing up in such a time
where smartphones are their best friends compared to anything else mostly.
With the rapid advancement in technology, human beings are becoming very
much dependent on it, losing the power to think.

Coming point wise, first is the rising concerns about the impacts of AI on
humanity.

1. Artificial Intelligence and impact on humanity :- The created

technology that allows computers and machines to function intelligently
is Artificial Intelligence. With the progressive development of AI, human
labor will no longer be needed as everything can be done mechanically.
Will humans become lazier and eventually degrade to the stage that we
return to our primitive form of being? The process of evolution takes
eons to develop, so we will not notice the backsliding of humankind.
However, how about if the AI becomes so powerful that it can program
itself to be in charge and disobey the order given by its master, the
humankind?

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Though it is making our jobs easier and time saving, it is making us all
the more stagnant and leading to a robotic society of human beings
without any emotions and feelings. It is also leading to a capitalistic
society where an upper class will reign over the others.

Secondly, artificial intelligence is largely going to cause unemployment

in the near future leading to miserable life for common man. It is a
challenge to almost all occupations and since machines are working
intelligently, we are losing the power to improve and overthink.

The adjacent figure to the

left depicts research by
2030, it predicts that
almost 1.2 million people
working in the banking
and lending sector will be
replaced by robots and AI.

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 The bar graph in the
adjacent figure shows the
percentage increase in the
use of robots from 2011 to
2016 which has further
increased till date in various
European countries. With its
rapid advancement, the rate
is obviously going to be very
high. This shows increased
dependency on machines,
causing unemployment.

Wealth inequality will be created as the investors of AI will take up the

major share of the earnings. The gap between the rich and the poor will
widen. The so-called “M” shape wealth distribution will be more obvious

New issues surface not only in a social sense but also in AI itself as the
AI being trained and learned how to operate the given task can
eventually take off to the stage that humans have no control, thus
creating un-anticipated problems and consequences. It refers to AI's
capacity after being loaded with all needed algorithms that may
automatically function on its own course ignoring the command given
by the human controller.

Concluding, though AI has made our lives faster, we positively agree

that AI is making us less humane, nothing indifferent than a robot,
leading towards a stagnant world, where people would lack humanity.

2. Technology and Mental health:- Human beings are social creatures.

We need the companionship of others to thrive in life, and the strength
of our connections has a huge impact on our mental health and
happiness. No matter what, social media can not replace the real world
human connection.

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 In person contact with others to trigger the hormones that alleviate
stress and make you feel happier, healthier, and more positive.
Ironically for a technology that’s designed to bring people closer
together, spending too much time engaging with social media can
actually make you feel more lonely and isolated—and exacerbate
mental health problems such as anxiety and [Link],
multiple studies have found a strong link between heavy social media
and an increased risk for depression, anxiety, loneliness, self-harm, and
even suicidal thoughts.

3. Fear of missing out (FOMO) :- While FOMO has been around far
longer than social media, sites such as Facebook and Instagram seem to
exacerbate feelings that others are having more fun or living better lives
than you are. The idea that you’re missing out on certain things can
impact your self-esteem, trigger anxiety, and fuel even greater social
media use.

Many of us use social media as a “security blanket”.

Whenever we’re in a social situation and feel anxious, awkward, or lonely,
we turn to our phones and log on to social media. Of course, interacting
with social media only denies you face-to-face interaction that can help to
ease anxiety.

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4. Dark Web :- Any website on the internet which is not indexed on
google and cannot be accessed without the address constitutes the deep
web. The deep web is almost 99% of the internet and the portion of the
internet that we use in our day-to-day life is the surface web (only 1%).
Big companies keep their secret data and documents on the deep web
which is not to be accessed by the common people. About 6% of this
Deep Web is notoriously known as the DARK WEB.

The dark web is an illegal portion of the web which can be accessed by
non-traditional browsers like the Tor browser. From Drug Dealers to
Assassins, you can even hire Hackers and pay them in cryptocurrencies
like Bitcoin etc. and it is difficult to track because of the privacy and
anonymity of the dark web. A December 2014 study by Gareth Owen
from the University of Portsmouth found that the most commonly hosted
type of content on Tor was child pornography, followed by black markets,
while the individual sites with the highest traffic were dedicated to
botnet operations. [35]

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 Commercial darknet markets mediate transactions for illegal goods and
typically use Bitcoin as payment. Silk Road was one of the first dark web
marketplaces that emerged in 2011 and has allowed for the trading of
weapons and identity fraud resources. These markets have no
protection for its users and can be closed down at any time by
authorities.

Terrorist organizations took to the internet as early as the 1990s;

however, the birth of the dark web attracted these organizations due to
the anonymity, lack of regulation, social interaction, and easy
accessibility. [63] These groups have been taking advantage of the chat
platforms within the dark web to inspire terrorist attacks. [63] Groups
have even posted "How To" guides, teaching people how to become and
hide their identity as terrorist. [63] The dark web became a forum for
terrorist propaganda, guiding information, and most importantly,
funding. [63] With the introduction of Bitcoin, anonymous transactions
were created which allowed for anonymous donations and funding. [63]
By accepting Bitcoin, terrorists were now able to fund money to
purchase weaponry.
As we can see with the advent of the internet, criminal activities have
reached heights like never before. The internet has made it easy for
criminals to operate and it has intensified the criminal mindset.

5. Online Piracy :- Online

piracy is the practice of
downloading and distributing
copyrighted content digitally
without permission, such as
music or software.[1][2] Online
piracy is still widely practiced,
due to both the ease with
which it can be done and the
often defensible ethics behind
it.

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 An August 2021 report by the Digital Citizens Alliance states that
"online criminals who offer stolen movies, TV shows, games, and live
events through websites and apps are reaping $1.34 billion in annual
advertising revenues."

The laws on copyright protection are clear and the penalties are heavy.
The prevalence of piracy in face of these potential penalties is due to the
fact that individuals do not see piracy as inappropriate let alone illegal,
instead viewing it as ethically acceptable due to the core execution of
piracy being that it creates a copy of the file, thus nothing tangible is
being taken away from the original owner. But the reality is that the
creators are being robbed of their revenue. Most people have the
tendency to use things for free. Just because people are doing piracy in a
virtual world and nobody is looking, they are not hesitating to do so. We
can clearly concur that technology is leading to our moral degradation
and making us less ethical which is a very crucial human quality.

6. Weapons and Mass Destruction :- The modernisation and

advancement of the world has not only helped us but also is the reason
for many wars and conflicts between the communities in the history
of the world. Technology helps manufacture artillery, military
weapons, and the latest combat weapons that require testing. Every
country wants to become a superpower with different weapons like
nuclear weapons. These are so powerful that the whole world can be
destroyed within a snap. Thus, when these weapons fall into the hands
of unnecessary criminals, they can use them for revenge and selfish
reasons, causing great harm to innocent people in society. Thus,
leading into growth of terrorism. Terrorism has tried every possible
way to vanish humanity by killing masses and occupying territory using
these weapons.

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 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research design and approach

The research design adopted a mixed method approach. A quantitative

survey i.e. web-based questionnaire and a qualitative interview schedule
were utilised in this study.

Data collection and analysis instrument

The survey was done online through google forms. The tool is provided by
Google Inc. and freely available on the web for everyone to create web-
based questionnaires. Keeping in view of CORONAVIRUS Pandemic and
lockdown, this method was chosen. Also, online surveys are faster, cheaper,
easy to style, more accurate, more flexible, quick to analyse and easy to use
for both participants and researchers.

Data collection methods and analysis

➢ Quantitative method:
The survey consisted of 12 questions. Out of which, 10 were multiple-choice
questions and 2 short answer questions. The aim was to conduct the survey
with 100 people including all age groups from 26-28 January 2022. 155
people responded. 74.8% of the respondents belong to the age group of (10-
19) years, 7.2% were of (20-29) years, 4.5% were of (30-39) years, 9% were
of (40-49) years and 4.5% belong to 50 and above. Because not all surveys
were fully completed, the quantitative data was analysed before including in
the research. The data was then analysed using google forms and google
sheets in the form of tables and pie charts.

➢ Qualitative method:
In order to gain a better insight of people’s view on technology, semi-
structured interviews were conducted with 5 participants, each belonging to
different age groups. Each member of our group interviewed 1 person in their
neighbourhood. Interviews were conducted at home and lasted
approximately 20 minutes each. Answers were recorded by note taking.

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 REPORT

An average person sleeps for about 7-8 hours a day and spends almost 8
hours at work. Thus, a person is left with almost 7-8 hours for himself in a
day.

So, at an average 40 percent of the people use their mobile phones other than
work purposes for about 3-4 hours a day which is almost 50% of the time a
man/woman has for himself. The numbers are very close to the majority and
therefore we can concur that in the near future the majority of people will be
‘overusing’ their smartphones and gadgets. Humans are losing a significant
amount of their time on social media and the internet which out of doubt is
making us less human.

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The next statistics is another eye opener for us. 55.5% of the people overuse
their smartphones and later regret it. Moreover, 35.05% of the people
undergo this almost every day. What we can notice here is that people are
slowly getting addicted to technology, and although they want to restrain the
uses, they are unable to do so. What can be worse than this? The things which
were created for our own benefit are proving to be our doom.

Another similar trend we can see in our survey is that 43.2% of the people are
more interested in spending time alone on the web rather than spending time
with the family. The people who want to spend time with their family are
about 43.9% which is the majority but the gap between the percentages is

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very small and it will not take very long for the first kind of people to overtake
the other half. What is the possible reason behind people liking to spend more
time on the web? One of the reasons is that people feel comfortable on the
web or rather they are ‘made’ to feel comfortable so that they spend more
time on the web. The AI shows people posts based on what the person likes
and this creates an impression on the person that the world thinks like
him/her and this creates bubbles and polarizes people.

Now, this survey will prove my point more clearly. 52.3% of the people agree
that humans are addicted to technology and 43.2% ‘strongly agree’ that we
are addicted to technology. If we combine the data almost 95% of the people
agree that we are addicted to technology. This is more shocking because
technology was made for our benefit so that humans can be more efficient in
their work and can overcome the difficulties they face in their day to day life,
but eventually we are becoming addicted to it.

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With the advent of technology we are seeing rise in cases of suicide due to
cyberbullying. Cyberbullying includes theft of identity i.e personal information
photos videos which you would not like to share with anyone , also includes
financial theft also known as fraud. We must have heard many instances
where one is looted or blackmailed. Online trolling is also a part of
cyberbullying . When we asked in our survey almost 45 percent heard the
news of suicide frequently. If it is not stopped then many would become
victims of cyberbullying in the coming future.

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“The art and science of asking questions is the source of all knowledge”. The
rise of] science is due to two questions: ‘why’ and ‘how’. Scientists and
discoverers always focused on these two questions. The more we think about
a thing, the sharper our brain gets, this triggers our brain which helps us in
improving our critical and creative thinking. Nowadays all are busy searching
the answer rather than finding it on their own but if we fail to find the answer
the time spent to think is worth giving. As we know several ways to find
answers in different situations. Nearly 50 % agree that it is degrading our
critical thinking.

We were surprised to see the response to this question. Nearly 42% send a
“GET WELL SOON” message when their loved ones are not well. Sending a
virtual flower to one who needs your help in his/her tough times. Do we find
the time to visit them? Do we feel the need to talk to them and hold their
hands? “NO”.

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 11. How far do you agree that technology is increasing acts like aborting girl child, organ selling,
drug dealing, etc ?
142 responses

Many illegal crimes are still present in this world be it aborting girl child,
organ selling or drug dealing. These cases have massively increased due to the
influence of technology in this world. Despite a ban on these illegal activities it
is still done undisclosed. When asked in the survey almost 50% agreed and
15.5% strongly agreed that technology is the reason for all this activity

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 . INTERVIEWING OUR FAMILY MEMBERS
AND NEIGHBOURS
Talking with our parents, family members, and neighbours, we could
conclude the following points:

⮚ Appreciation for nature has reduced.

⮚ Kids from a very small age are being

exposed to smartphones and computer
games. They prefer playing games on a
device compared to playing outdoor
games. Even parents give their infants and
small kids smartphones in order to prevent
them from crying. This indeed is harming
their mental development as well as their
physical health. They are becoming all the
more very less interactive with people
and becoming addicted to technology.

⮚ Festivals have lost their true and real significance in this modern era; i.e.
mainly due to technology.

⮚ Reduced concentration and temper of children of today’s generation;

increased cases of depression and suicides in teenagers.

⮚ Dark future ahead of the younger

generation with the increased
efficieny of AI leading to high
unemployement in almost every
sector.

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Childhood of our parents when there was no exposure to smart phones:

⮚ More human connection and stronger relations.

⮚ Less selfishness in society.
⮚ Reading books immuned imaginative faculty.
⮚ Stories told by grandparents used to take the children to the world of fantasy.
⮚ Family bonding was better (in most cases).

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 Conclusion
The analysis of our survey produces a quite diverse ideology about whether
technology is deteriorating humanity.

In our public survey, we asked people about their opinion about technological
influence on human society. The response were as follows:

● Technology have made our life easier, though have made us slave and
dependent upon it.
● Tech is a boon or Bane - Depends on us how we utilise it.
● I believe that the slowly decaying humanity is a direct reflection of
urbanization and technological advancements.
● It is a thing to observe that a simple life is more oriented towards
humanly characteristics.

This makes providing a clear conclusion extremely difficult.

On one hand, it can be said that technology does make us feel less human. Over
the years, we have come to depend greatly on devices throughout every step of
the day. From simple switches and vehicles to the incredibly complex Internet
tools, technology has started to dominate our lives by being our crutch every
step of the day, every step of the way. Too much technology leads to humans
outsourcing basic and essential activities once defined to be human qualities
– thought processes, memories, and analysis, for example. So it could be
established that advancement of technology has led to the abasement of
human spirit.

We think everyone needs to ask what does it mean for a human being to
flourish? These technologies are forcing us to be more deliberate about asking
that question. If we ask these questions in a thoughtful and explicit way, then
we can say more definitely what these technologies are adding or subtracting
from human experience.

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 Bibliography
Dark web: [Link]

Online Piracy: [Link]

Technology,Mental Health and

FOMO:[Link]
[Link]

Google form: [Link]

M5WJNtZv4YXPpBxhj3GHu5zQ/edit?ts=61f11fe8

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 CERTIFICATE OF COMPLETION

This is to certify that the Project Report titled

“IN PRESENT TIMES, IS TECHNOLOGY MAKING US
LESS HUMANE?” is a bona fide work carried out and
successfully completed

by Abhijit Baral, Aditya Ghosh, Ansuman Sahu,

Shailja Agarwal(L) and Sharnaya Baidya

of Class XI-SUPER 40 (2021-22)

of D.A.V. Public School, Chandrasekharpur,
for fulfilment of the ALS Project.

Dr. K.C. Sathapathy Mrs. Bharati Pradhan

Principal Teacher Guide

Date:
Place:

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