technology makes us lazy essay

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Best Technology Essay Examples

Has technology made us lazy.

665 words | 3 page(s)

The technological progress over the last two decades has been impressive by any measure. The personal computer and cell phone were once luxury items, affordable by only the few but now they are as ubiquitous as other household items like TV and refrigerator. The technological progress has, indeed, made our lives easier and also made us more efficient in many cases but this progress has not been without costs. The progress rarely comes without costs and challenges and the modern technology is guilty of making us lazy.

The technology is making us lazy because it is making it possible for us to do certain tasks without mastering the basics. In older days when the technology was not as advanced as it is today, one would often invest significant time in learning and practicing a particular art. For example, the digital photo and video cameras are highly advanced today and any one can take professional-level pictures or make videos with them. But this was not always like this as taking pictures or making videos was an art one would gradually learn over time . While the technology has, indeed, made us more efficient but it is also true we have become highly dependent upon the technology now as opposed to relying on personal skills to accomplish a particular task. One sees similar examples on almost daily basis. Some are even concerned that people are turning to technologies for tasks as simple as arithmetic calculations because it is both faster and more convenient to google an answer instead of manually arriving at the solution.

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The technology has made us lazy by making us more efficient. This efficiency has increased our leisure time and options. Many tasks that used to be quite time consuming can now be performed almost instantly. A writer in the past had to spend significant time browsing books and journals to find quotes and citations etc. but now all of these tasks can be done instantly through Google and other assistive technologies. The pilots now do not usually fly commercial jets the entire route but instead make generous use of the autopilot feature . The days are near when we may be driving our cars in quite the same manner as well. The laziness has accompanied greater efficiency in not only our professional lives but also personal lives. The inventions such as microwaves and ovens and the services such as online food ordering means food preparation is not a time-consuming task it once was.

The technology is not only making us physically lazy but also mentally lazy. The technology often gives us an incentive not to do the hard work involved in analytical thinking. We are almost replacing our brains with smart phones, i.e. instead of thinking and willing to engage in mental labor to arrive at the answers, we are simply outsourcing the task of getting answers to technology such as our smart phones. This trend may hurt us in the long run because our brains also need exercise to stay sharp, especially, in the old age . The technology is making us lazy. We used to master certain tasks through practice in the past but the technologies have become so advanced now that we can achieve professional results without ever mastering even the basic skills. The technology has also made us lazy because it has made us more efficient. We can do tasks in much shorter time now as compared to the past, and as a result we have more leisure time. The technology is not only making us lazy physically but also mentally. Many of us are outsourcing the task of thinking and analyzing to technology such as our smart phones and this habit may hurt us in the long run because our brains are not getting sufficient exercise.

• Coopersmith, Jonathan. How technology made us hyper-capable – and helpless. 23 June 2016. 3 April 2017 .
• Inc. Is Time-Saving Technology Making Us Lazy and Incompetent? 14 October 2014. 3 April 2017 .
• Wagner, David. Smartphones Make Some Of Us Lazy Thinkers. 27 March 2015. 3 April 2017 .

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Technology Makes Students Lazy

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Is technology making us dumber or smarter? Yes

Professor of History, Texas A&M University

Disclosure statement

Jonathan Coopersmith does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Texas A&M University provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation US.

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The smartphone in your hand enables you to record a video, edit it and send it around the world. With your phone, you can navigate in cities, buy a car, track your vital signs and accomplish thousands of other tasks. And so?

Each of those activities used to demand learning specific skills and acquiring the necessary resources to do them. Making a film? First, get a movie camera and the supporting technologies (film, lights, editing equipment). Second, learn how to use them and hire a crew. Third, shoot the movie. Fourth, develop and edit the film. Fifth, make copies and distribute them.

Now all of those tasks are solved by technology. We need no longer learn the intricate details when the smartphone programmers have taken care of so much. But filmmakers are now freer to focus on their craft, and it is easier than ever to become a filmmaker. Historically, technology has made us individually dumber and individually smarter – and collectively smarter. Technology has made us able to do more while understanding less about what we are doing, and has increased our dependence on others.

These are not recent trends, but part of the history of technology since the first humans began to farm. In recent decades, three major changes have accelerated the process, starting with the increasing pace of humans specializing in particular skills. In addition, we outsource more skills to technological tools, like a movie-making app on a smartphone, that relieve us of the challenge of learning large amounts of technical knowledge. And many more people have access to technology than in the past, allowing them to use these tools much more readily.

Specialized knowledge

Specialization enables us to become very good at some activities, but that investment in learning – for example, how to be an ER nurse or computer coder – comes at the expense of other skills like how to grow your own food or build your own shelter.

As Adam Smith noted in his 1776 “Wealth of Nations,” specialization enables people to become more efficient and productive at one set of tasks, but with a trade-off of increased dependence on others for additional needs. In theory, everyone benefits.

Specialization has moral and pragmatic consequences. Skilled workers are more likely to be employed and earn more than their unskilled counterparts. One reason the United States won World War II was that draft boards kept some trained workers, engineers and scientists working on the home front instead of sending them to fight. A skilled machine tool operator or oil-rig roustabout contributed more to winning the war by staying at home and sticking to a specialized role than by heading to the front with a rifle. It also meant other men (and some women) donned uniforms and had a much greater chance of dying.

Making machines for the rest of us

Incorporating human skills into a machine – called “blackboxing” because it makes the operations invisible to the user – allows more people to, for example, take a blood pressure measurement without investing the time, resources and effort into learning the skills previously needed to use a blood pressure cuff. Putting the expertise in the machine lowers the barriers to entry for doing something because the person does not need to know as much. For example, contrast learning to drive a car with a manual versus an automatic transmission.

Mass production of blackboxed technologies enables their widespread use. Smartphones and automated blood pressure monitors would be far less effective if only thousands instead of tens of millions of people could use them. Less happily, producing tens of millions of automatic rifles like AK-47s means individuals can kill far more people far more easily compared with more primitive weapons like knives.

More practically, we depend on others to do what we cannot do at all or as well. City dwellers in particular depend on vast, mostly invisible structures to provide their power , remove their waste and ensure food and tens of thousands of other items are available.

Overreliance on technology is dangerous

A major downside of increased dependence on technologies is the increased consequences if those technologies break or disappear. Lewis Dartnell’s “The Knowledge” offers a delightful (and frightening) exploration of how survivors of a humanity-devastating apocaplyse could salvage and maintain 21st-century technologies.

Just one example of many is that the U.S. Naval Academy resumed training officers to navigate by sextants . Historically the only way to determine a ship’s location at sea, this technique is being taught again both as a backup in case cyberattackers interfere with GPS signals and to give navigators a better feel of what their computers are doing.

How do people survive and prosper in this world of increasing dependence and change? It’s impossible to be truly self-reliant, but it is possible to learn more about the technologies we use, to learn basic skills of repairing and fixing them (hint: always check the connections and read the manual) and to find people who know more about particular topics. In this way the Internet’s vast wealth of information can not only increase our dependence but also decrease it (of course, skepticism about online information is never a bad idea). Thinking about what happens if something goes wrong can be a useful exercise in planning or a descent into obsessive worrying.

Individually, we depend more on our technologies than ever before – but we can do more than ever before. Collectively, technology has made us smarter, more capable and more productive. What technology has not done is make us wiser.

Editor’s note: This article was part of a collaboration with Point Taken, a program from GBH that aired on PBS .

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5 ways technology has made us lazy

Has technology has made us complacent, or simply relieved us of our chores? Let’s look at five ways technology is making us lazy.

Has technology has made us lazy, or simply relieved us of our chores?

The World Economic Forum has a lovely series entitled “ What if †where a blogger will propose a thought-provoking question about the future, and our current situation (primarily where technology is involved). “What if jobs as we know them disappear?†for example, looks at how automation, artificial intelligence, and data analytics are transforming the employment landscape in ASEAN. The discussion usually explores possible, plausible, and probable impacts of new technologies on the future of society, employment, and then looks at how we should respond.

Earlier this month, the question was “What If: drugs are printed from the internetâ€. One of the questions asked within the article was “Would you feel comfortable taking medicine downloaded from a digital prescription to a 3D printer in your homeâ€. This is a fascinating question for many reasons – a true testament to the fourth industrial revolution we’re experiencing – but it paints a bleak picture of local pharmacies and drug stores becoming obsolete if this reality comes true.

We’ve seen technology and the entrance of eCommerce eliminate bricks and mortar stores in the past, but we don’t always recognize how these innovations are making us lazy, too. We don’t need to run errands anymore; we literally can press a button and have most of our first world problems solved in an instant.

• Delivery services on steroids – we used to spoil ourselves with an occasional delivered meal, a pizza, or Chinese food, whatever was nearest to us and delivered. Delivery services and online shopping have evolved so rapidly that realistically, we don’t have to leave our homes to do “chores†anymore. We can get groceries, clothes, dinner, laundry, makeup [insert anything else you can think of here] delivered directly to our front door.
• Ride-sharing – Once in the not-too-distant past, we couldn’t use an app and expect a ride to come within moments of our inquiry. Before Cabify, Lyft and Uber, if we needed a ride, and couldn’t hail a cab we would walk. Whether it was walking to a busier corner for a taxi, finding the nearest public transport hub, or walking to the actual destination, we were not groomed to stay put and have a ride come to us.
• An influx of entertainment – We’ve all heard the jokes about Netflix like watching so long in a “binge session†that Netflix embarrassingly asks if we’re still watching. At our fingertips, we have Netflix, Hulu, HBOgo, Apple TV, iTunes store –thousands of hours of entertainment so easily accessible that we don’t need to leave our sofa to find enjoyment. No more running to Blockbuster, or Redbox, or even the movie theater.
• Social media – It seems that texting or social media lurking on a mobile phone have become the most common form of communication for generations of digital natives. Picking up the phone to call someone seems more of an effort than many like to commit to – even voice memos have replaced a two-way conversation.
• Asking for directions – Thanks to GPS, Google Maps, Waze, and the boatload of other navigation technologies we no longer ask anyone for directions. There is no more pulling off at a random gas stop on a road trip to see where the heck you’re at. No more reading paper maps – we have a small voice inside our phone that directs us everywhere we need to be.

Do you think that saying technology is making us lazy is too harsh of an indictment? Or do you think that technology has just provided relief from the burdens of running errands or getting unnecessarily lost? What are the pros and cons of the hyper-ease we can now experience when accomplishing tasks?

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How Technology Makes Us Lazy Every Day

Technology has improved by leaps and bounds in the last few decades but has simultaneously had some negative effects. We’ve discussed, and continue to discuss different aspects it affects, and often mention not everything is clear-cut. To use this topic as an example, two people can wonder, “is technology making us lazy?” and “is technology relieving us of unnecessary chores?” and both would also conclude different things. We’ll showcase mostly negative effects but know not everything is black and white. With that said, let’s jump straight into how technology makes us lazy.

Table of Contents

How Technology Makes Us Lazy?

Technology makes us lazy by automating tasks that once required manual effort, reducing our physical activity and engagement. It also provides instant access to information, diminishing our need for deep research or critical thinking.

Furthermore, it encourages passive consumption of digital content. This can limit our creativity and problem-solving skills.

These are more ways technology makes us lazy:

1. Acquiring information

The founding of the Internet  and its subsequent development and expansion was the primary driving force behind this cause of laziness. Desktop and laptop computers were the primary tools at first. But, the accessibility of smartphones and tablets, which, in the first quarter of 2021, made up 55% of total Internet traffic, has made giant strides. Here are 2 examples of information technology at work:

We examined the effects of technology in education and were astounded. You can not only get a Bachelor’s, but also a Master’s and maybe even Doctor’s degree from your room, on your own dime and time, in your pajamas.

Additionally, when we analyzed technology benefits for teachers , we concluded that daily runs to libraries or bookstores or expensive educational or business trips are now obsolete. Moreover, automatization and bots can replace monotonous, repetitive tasks, eliminating a lot of work we did not so long ago.

When was the last time you purchased a physical newspaper? Even if you have, getting news via your Internet browser or dedicated news apps is a better alternative. Unfortunately, it eliminates the need for physical activities such as going to a newspaper stand or nearest gas station to stay up to date with local and global events.

2. Delivery

Delivery of goods provides another evidence technology makes us lazy:

Online shopping

To shop online, you have to visit a website, find a product, analyze its description, reviews, picture, and price, then add it to the cart. After the total gets deducted from a credit or debit card the ordered items arrive at your doorstep within 1-30 days.

When compared to the time, money, and effort spent on finding, comparing, analyzing, negotiating, and acquiring the same product without technology, you were irrefutably idle. Additionally, robots, AI, and machine learning are taking over the brunt of the workload humans performed in the past, including daily warehouse and shipping operations and system monitoring. 

Food is not only making humanity lazier but also more obese, and technology affects every link in the chain. Technological improvements have helped reduce the workload in growing food through agriculture and farming and preparing it for serving or selling in the market. Restaurants, fast-food joints, drive-through windows, and takeaway places also reduce the need to prepare the food before it’s served.

Simply put, there’s no need to run errands or finish daily chores. But at least the workers there work hard, day in and day out. Sadly, that too is about to change. We mentioned robot-arm chefs when we discussed ways technology is replacing jobs in the food industry ( Service headline).

3. Ride-sharing

Transportation technology made our lives easier but required some amount of work. For example, you had to get to the nearest bus station, check the train or airplane schedule, or find a corner with taxi vehicles. Nowadays, you can send a text a minute or two before leaving the house. Apps like Uber , Lyft , or Cabify will connect you to the nearest available driver in a vehicle that fits your group size, and GPS will provide locations both ways.

Furthermore, the introduction of autonomous vehicles, while keeping us safe in traffic and being good for the environment , are one of the most evident indicators technology makes us lazy. You can enter into the vehicle and gaze into the scenery up until you have to leave at the destination.

4. Entertainment

We don’t need to point out the influx of streaming services in recent years, do we? Watching movies on Netflix , HBO Max , Hulu , and using media streaming devices such as Apple TV or Chromecast has almost completely replaced theaters and cinemas. In doing so, it glued viewers to the TVs, computers, and mobile device screen at home.

This made the practice of “binge-watching” normal. And don’t get us started on the gaming industry. It lets us simulate a wide variety of experiences at home, including Virtual Reality (VR). Additionally, in-game winning gives us a sense of accomplishment, making us unmotivated to seek it in real life.

5. Smart homes

Want a clear sign technology makes us lazy? How about no longer having to get up to flick the light switch off? You can do it through your smart device or a remote thanks to smart outlets or smart bulbs. But it went further than that, and dramatically. Today, a variety of modern technology can be controlled remotely or operated without monitoring through the home system.

Some examples include home appliances, LED lights in bulbs and strips, blinds on windows, garage and house doors, audio distribution, and even video uplink for surveillance thousands of miles away. You can even issue voice commands to your home assistant or purchase a smart mirror that never fogs.

6. Social media and communication

While undoubtedly beneficial , direct unrestricted access to someone and his or her whereabouts can bring negative consequences. For example, you can see the location of other people via services such as Facebook Places or Google Latitude , and social media apps such as Snapchat .

Moreover, you can see what friends are listening to on Last.fm , Spotify , check their YouTube subscriptions, view favorite books on Goodreads , or check their plans on  Plancast . It’s not hard to see how you’d be lazy to strike up a conversation over text, audio, or video, let alone meeting in person. 

7. Marketing/Advertising

In the past, you had to spend thousands of dollars to hire a marketing firm. Or, if you’re the marketer yourself, go door to door or organize conventions or seminars to sell products. Furthermore, you needed a “hustle” mentality, charm, charisma, ability to handle rejection, and skills to recognize the target community.

Nowadays, you can spend a little time setting up an advertisement or pay someone to do it for you. Then, sponsor others or run online ads and have people flocking to you while you sleep.

How to overcome technology-induced laziness?

Although technology is a major contributor to our laziness, we often find ourselves simply giving in instead of actually making any significant changes. Why is that? Is it because technology has become an inseparable part of our lives, and we can’t make do without it? Well, studies show that technologies do have some severe impacts on our social lives. 

A recent survey done on Pakistani and Chinese society shows us that almost 69% of people have become lazier due to technological advancement. It also shows that at least 28% of people have some sort of decision-making impairment when it comes to technology. This sentiment is universal, as almost 73% of US citizens believe that while technology has increased their quality of life, it has also made them lazier. 

We have included here a few ways that can help you overcome tech-induced laziness. We have also attached a video that raises yet another important question: whether technology is making us dumb. Do watch it:

1. Make a schedule and stick to it

First, and most important of all, accept the fact that technology is here to stay and that you will most likely be using it on a daily basis. Since there is no escaping the inevitable, we have to manage our lives accordingly in hopes of achieving a healthy and sound lifestyle. Which is why scheduling is so important. 

In order to escape laziness, you can make a detailed schedule of your day and try to stick to it, giving appropriate time to both technology and other activities. 

2. Take a time off of social media

While we can argue about the merits and demerits of social media, it is a fact that it does make us a lot lazier. We often use it to communicate with our family members who are just down the hallway. Oftentimes, we use it to “check on” our friends instead of actually checking in on them. There have been studies about how social media is also fueling mental health issues like depression, anxiety, and isolation, so it is best that one takes a break from it.

3. Engage in physical activities

Another way to counter tech-induced laziness is to become more active. Yes, it sounds like a paradox, as in, if we could become active by will, we wouldn’t be lazy, right? But that is not the case. Technology has made everything convenient, even entertainment. 

Before, people used to go out for stuff like picnics, movies, or simply for a nice dinner, but now they have the option of binge-watching while ordering their favorite meal online, delivered to their doorsteps. So yes, by actually going out, we can be much less lazy.

What are the technologies that make us lazy and how?

In the article, we learn how technology makes us lazy and why. We have also covered what to do to escape this phenomenon. It is time we actually take a look at the technologies involved and learn exactly how they impact us to become lazy, and with the help of the following table, which has compiled the different technologies and their impact, we will be attempting to do so: 

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Technology Makes Man Lazy (Essay Sample)

Technology makes man lazy.

When almost everything can be done through technology, what else is there to do but depend on it even more often despite disastrous results? One of the worst effects of technology on humanity is laziness. By laziness, this refers to being lazy in doing, thinking, and interacting.  Technology has made life easier indeed but the major drawback is the creation of a new generation that spawns succeeding generations of lethargic individuals. As technology dominates modern societies, people have become lazy physically, socially, and mentally.

Technology removes many physical activities which result in laziness. First, driving makes it easy to move around but also reduces walking and other related activities. Many would ride their cars to send their children to school or go to work instead of walking or biking. No wonder then that obesity and overweight incidence continue to rise! Second, appliances and devices decrease physical activity too while increasing screen time. For example, since people can use their washing machines to wash their clothes, gone are the days of instant strength training when they used to carry pails and heavy laundry to and from water sources. Nowadays, when people wash their clothes, they watch TV, fiddle with their phones, and/or eat- all of which are activities that lack physical movement. At the same time, many children are becoming overweight or obese due to hours spent being glued to tablets, smartphones, and laptops. They have lost their interest in going to the park and playing sports because they can easily play online or video games. Technology increases laziness and diminishes physical actions that are crucial to a healthy and strong physical development from childhood to adulthood.

Besides the physical drawback, technology distances people from each other which make them lazy in giving the required effort to maintain quality human relationships. First, many individuals depend on technology to manage their relationships for them. For instance, some parents simply give electronic gadgets like tablets and smartphones to their kids in order to keep the latter busy. In other words, they are letting technology do the parenting instead of them! The usual negative effect is that parents fail to know who their children as they develop, creating communication and discipline problems along the way. Second, the youth depend too much on technology to shape their relationships. A good illustration is how many Millennials use the social media to make and maintain friendships. The consequence is that sometimes, by depending on social media too much, they have ill-developed face-to-face interpersonal skills that can lead to failures in reading and responding to verbal and written as well as non-verbal expressions of others. Third, couples rely on technology to communicate in short words instead of giving time for meaningful conversations. They express themselves briefly which may lack the required content to make themselves understood to their partners, possibly producing communication breakdowns.

Technology also makes people lazy by depending on it more than they should including thinking critically about information. Social media which is full of false news has been the go-to news outlet for many people. As a result, they tend to select sites that mirror what they believe in or are inclined to believe in, producing an in-breeding of beliefs that fail to hone critical thinking. In addition, people scan for information without digesting it properly. They read and believe almost everything, especially that which confirms their existing values and assumptions. Technology is an insufficient tool for helping people think critically of information.

Laziness has increased and will continue to do so because of technology. By making it the center of their lives, many people shall suffer from bad health as well as poor relationships and low-quality thinking. People using technology too much and indiscriminately should reflect on these disadvantages because laziness harms them in too many ways.

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7 Ways In Which Technology Has Made Us Lazy

31/05/2022 | Offshoot Books

Technology has made our lives easy and interesting. With new inventions, it has made many things possible. Before the invention of telephone or mobile phone, who would have imagined that they would be able to talk to people living far away; in fact, can even see them while calling.

Who would have thought that cutting, chopping or cooking food be this much easier?

Today, we cannot imagine our lives without the gadgets, machines and internet, of course. But, have you ever thought that how the cons of technology are under wraps. No doubt technology has made our life easy, but lazy too. When we are getting everything at our doorstep, we restrain ourselves from doing hard work. So , when you don’t like to leave our bed to do those necessary tasks, that you probably do with just one click, we bring you some of the reasons how technology has made us all lazy.

1. Delivery at your doorstep:  Technology has made shopping so easy that you can get anything at your doorstep. Delivery services and online shopping has evolved so rapidly that one doesn’t have to leave home at all, to buy anything. From clothes to shoes, groceries to restaurant orders, laundry make up, house cleaning, you name it and it is offered at your convenience. Therefore, when you are getting everything so easily, you don’t have to move out of your home and get things yourself.

2. Checking-in with loved ones without actually doing so:  With technology at its best, people talk and discuss with each other a lot without meeting or sitting together. There are many apps and social media networks where people actually talk and connect with each other these days. Two people sitting together at two different parts of the world can talk and see each other anytime they wish to. But, it has also created differences between those who can actually stay and be together. There is no connect between the people even if they are so-called connected. Technology has made us closer but technically has made us far.  

3. Connected through social media:  Social media has made the world a small place so much so that things and people in far off places too seem to be very close to you. You are connected to everyone from any part of the world. You can do and connect with anyone easily via social media but does not meet, greet or hang out with them in person. Technology has made you lazy as you only spend time on social media networks and forget to socialize in real. Moreover, you spend so much time on social media platforms that you forget to do many a things and do not pay attention to your work.

4. Ditching the bookstores:  For the true book lovers, the smell of the pages of a book is as precious as the content in the books. They can spend hours and hours in libraries and bookstores to read many more books. But, with advanced technology and e-books available, people no longer visit bookstores and rather prefer reading the e-book version. Hence, the technological advancement has impacted the love for books and have made people lazy for going to their favorite book stores.

5. Asking for directions:  With google maps and GPS, you no longer have to ask for directions from a third source. There is no need to stop at the gas stations or taxi or cab stands to ask for directions while you are heading to your destination. You have completely stopped using the paper maps for directions. Asking for directions is on your tips now as a small voice form the GPS gives you instructions now-a-days for taking the right turn while driving, along with the duration and the expected congestion at the road.  

6. Gyming at home:  You don’t go to the gym anymore and stay fit and do regular exercises with ease at your home, thanks to the gym equipment easily available in the market. You do not go to the gym anymore and do the exercises at your home. Gyming at your convenient time and with your favorite tools is easy and simple and it makes you lazy as you no longer have to walk down or drive to go to the gym.

7. Switching off lights from bed:  Technology makes you lazy to an extent that now you don’t even have to get up from your bed to switch off the lights or fan. With sensors and technological development, there are remote control systems with which you can switch off or switch on the lights. The entire control is in your hands and you can use it as per your convenience.   

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Is AI making us lazy?

Some believe automation is making us work-shy, but others believe the benefits outweigh the potential risks

This article originally appeared in the April edition of IT Pro 20/20, available here . To sign up to receive each new issue in your inbox, click here .

Artificial intelligence (AI) is now part of our everyday lives. Many of us now wake up to our lights turning on automatically with the temperature of our home set just how we like it, and that's before we begin interacting with tools such as digital assistants and IoT doorbells, and even automation-powered services that write our emails for us .

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, automation technologies have also become more widely used in the enterprise too. Some 73% of organisations worldwide are now using automation technologies, two-thirds of business leaders used automation to respond to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and a quarter of workers have seen a change to their role and ways of working because of the implementation of these technologies, according to research from Deloitte on robotic and intelligent automation.

However, while we've long heard about the benefits of AI for businesses, from the fact that it can enable companies to save time and money by automating and optimising routine processes and tasks as well as increase productivity and operational efficiencies, some believe the technology could be making us lazy.

Dumbing it down

In 2015, Nigel Barber PhD, a biopsychologist and author, wrote in Psychology Today that much like how after the Industrial Revolution people became less physically active and began to gain weight as machines replaced manual workers, reliance on automation could make people less intelligent.

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"AI is embedded in many features of modern life for the simple reason that intelligent machines can already outperform humans, including some aptitudes where there was once thought to be a human advantage, such as playing chess or recalling trivia in a game of Jeopardy," he said. "In the future, the electronic assistant will develop to the point that it serves similar functions as a real living butler, fulfilling requests such as: 'Organize a dinner party for six on Thursday, Jeeves, and invite the usual suspects."

"At that point, our long struggle with challenging technologies is at an end. We can take it easy knowing that the hard work of planning and organising is being done by a better brain – the electronic assistant. Starved of mental effort, our brains will regress. The future is an aristocratic fog."

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Professor Stefano Puntoni , professor of Marketing at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM), has also researched how new technology is changing consumption and society and has subsequently warned of the dangers an overreliance on automation can have on humans.

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First, he warns, is the risk of deterioration of professional skills that heavy reliance on automation can cause. "For example, most famously, in 2009 an Air France plane crashed into the Atlantic en-route from Brazil to France," Putoni tells IT Pro . "The cause of the tragedy was the pilot's inappropriate response following the disengagement of the autopilot system during a storm.

"Second, we need to avoid becoming complacent. In many situations, human supervision and vigilance remain crucial to ensure all runs smoothly and to step in where necessary to avoid error. For example, the first death in an accident involving the Tesla autonomous driving system was due to a combination of the system mistaking a white truck for the sky and the driver's complete lack of attention."

Putoni also warns that even when tragedy is not involved, AI technologies can create discomfort when it prevents individuals from exerting effort and practising skills that they care about.

"For example, we show that people for whom cooking is an important part of their identity tend to dislike an automated cooking machine when this is presented with the purpose of taking over the cooking responsibilities completely," he adds. "However people's responses became less negative when the same product was presented as still enabling the user's involvement, allowing collaboration between people and technology. Sometimes more automation is not better."

Work-shy AI

Some believe, too, that AI has the potential to make us lazy in the workplace – particularly if the implementation of the technology isn't well thought out.

Jeet Mukerji, lead AI product manager at Beamery, tells IT Pro : "AI has the potential to make us lazy in the workplace if we agree on three things. The first is that the original work, now done by AI, is worth mastering by humans. We choose to not do this, however, so will eventually lose this skill set – empathising, or doing mental maths, for example.

"Secondly, we choose to consistently spend the time and energy, freed up by AI, in lower value moments such as deciding to scroll social media without an aim rather than read a book or to learn a new skill.

"Finally, we choose to not understand the limits of AI we are using, expect too much of it, shirk our responsibility fully on it and don't engage the outputs of the AI correctly – by this I mean we think it is incapable of error, so don't sense check the outputs."

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Mukerji believes that we can prevent AI from making us lazy, but to do so we need to make the right choices: We need to understand the technology's limitations by engaging with it correctly and be proactive and curious enough to learn how to improve and add further value.

"A further important point here is that this has nothing to do with AI, but is more focused on general training on how to be a productive human," Mukerji adds.

AI don't agree

Others, however, believe that AI is not making us lazy and suggest it's having the opposite effect: Giving us more headspace to spend on productive and enjoyable tasks at work.

James Coombes, CEO of vector.ai, an AI startup for enterprise operations, tells IT Pro : "It's still surprising today that employees continue to manually reconcile and organise documents and email communications. It's a waste of human talent. The good news is this is a problem AI can solve. There is so much value to be had by adding an intelligent layer that can do the more basic cognitive tasks and give us all our headspace back.

"By automating monotonous tasks like 'answer that email', 'key in that data' and 'find that piece of information', employees can spend their time on delivering great customer service, learning new skills, increasing business development and pursuing passion projects. Not only will this lead to a better and more profitable business but a happy workforce freed from process pain."

This is a viewpoint shared by Rachel Roumeliotis, vice president of Data and AI at O'Reilly, an online learning platform focussing on digital skills, who tells IT Pro that AI will only make us lazy if businesses use it in a lazy way. She says that if the technology is used correctly, it should allow people to be more creative and use their time doing tasks that can make a palpable difference to the business.

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"For example, AI can be used to take on the burden of repetitive, administrative tasks, such as reporting. This is work which is often necessary, but which can take a long time and is more of a tick-box exercise than anything else," she says. "The onus, however, is then on businesses to encourage and enable their employees to replace that work with something more engaging and strategic.

"In some instances, this will be easy for businesses. Those hours spent on administrative tasks can be replaced by brainstorms or extra hours of content production. For others, it might require some restructuring of the business. Either way, training should be at the very heart of it. The time saved on performing admin tasks can instead be used by employees to learn new skills and impact the business in a new, innovative way.

"AI shouldn't be making us lazier, it should be enabling greater creativity and a greater sense of fulfilment within work."

Dr Lindsey Zuloaga, chief data scientist at HireVue, also believes that the benefits of utilising AI in the workplace far outweigh the potential downsides – particularly as a result of the COVID pandemic, which has caused workers to suffer from increased workloads and depleted resources over the past 12 months.

"In hiring, for example, recruiters are able to spend less time on scheduling and more time on candidate engagement and personalised interactions, as well as streamlining communication between recruiters, hiring teams and candidates," she tells IT Pro .

"All of these elements facilitate a faster turnaround time for new hires. This is far from laziness, but a modern way of driving efficiency and focusing your staff's time on tasks that hold greater value."

Carly Page is a freelance technology journalist, editor and copywriter specialising in cyber security, B2B, and consumer technology. She has more than a decade of experience in the industry and has written for a range of publications including Forbes, IT Pro, the Metro, TechRadar, TechCrunch, TES, and WIRED, as well as offering copywriting and consultancy services.  

Prior to entering the weird and wonderful world of freelance journalism, Carly served as editor of tech tabloid The INQUIRER from 2012 and 2019. She is also a graduate of the University of Lincoln, where she earned a degree in journalism.

You can check out Carly's ramblings (and her dog) on Twitter , or email her at  [email protected] .

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