Resilience as the Main Factor in the Advancement of Technology

The 21st Century is incomparable to any other time period in lieu of the advances that have been made as a society. This is a new age, which is now primarily defined as the interdependence and interactions between humans and technology. Although much has changed in the realm of technological advancements, the theory of resilience has been around since the beginning of time. The term resilience was often used when talking about humans however, in this new age, technology has developed more and more human-like traits.

Resilience is the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or significant sources of stress (The Road to Resilience). In other words, resilience is the ability to bounce back after something interferes with daily norms, a sort of mental toughness. This development of human traits in mechanics has left a gap in which society must decide how important it is for resilience to be carried on and applied to modern technology. I believe that resilience is a key factor in technology and carrying on with advancements of technology in the future.

The advancements in the world of technology and information systems are increasing at an astonishing rate. More people have access to or own some type of technological device than ever before. According to the Pew Research Center, around 68% of American adults now own a smartphone’. This is a huge increase from the 35% of adults who owned smartphones in 2011. With these numbers on the rise, the amount of physical accidents involving handheld devices, such as phones, has sky rocketed.

Technology has become portable, therefore there is a dire need for the presence physical resilience. People drop their phones and expect everything to function the way that it did before the fall. Although there have been no major developments in the production of self-repairing glass, most devices are able to keep kicking even after major cosmetic damage has occurred. Companies like Apple and Samsung are making phones even more physically resilient by making them water proof, dust proof, and impact proof. These physical abilities to bounce back from dramatic accidents save people the money, time, and frustration of having to get a new phone.

Resilience is arguably even more vital to the internal works of technology. Having access to the world in the palm of your hand is a blessing and a curse. The ability of devices to fight against hackers and viruses is perhaps the most important aspect of resilience within the world of technology. Virus’s and hackers can completely take over computers, phones, and other devices that use software to operate. This can lead to intense frustration for users of the device.

There is generally a bold expectation from users for their electronic experience to be nearly seamless. The ability of a computer to bounce back from attacks is important and often times, necessary for users to be able to go about their day. Now that technology has the ability to store private individual information, there is a need to rely on the resilience of systems to keep information such as addresses and even credit card numbers private.

The abilities of technological devices are developing day by day. Technology is taking on more human-like traits as we advance our knowledge of mechanics and the abilities of devices. A key component of everyday human life is having the ability to bounce back from adversity. Since technology is becoming more of a human counterpart, it is essential that devices adapt vital human traits such as resilience. Users rely heavily on the external and internal resilience of devices in order to complete daily tasks. I believe it is extremely advantageous to the progress and advancement of technology for devices to be produced with growing levels of resilience.

Work Citied

1. Anderson, M. (2015). Technology Device Ownership: 2015. Retrieved October 27, 2016, from http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/10/29/technology-device-ownership-2015/

2. The Road to Resilience. (n.d.). Retrieved October 27, 2016, from 

   http://www.apa.org/helpcenter/road-resilience.aspx