What Are the Downside of Digitalization?

5 min readMay 9, 2021

Digital technology has brought in a paradigm change in the life of people by imparting a facelift to everything ranging from office work to shopping, movies, music, travel, photography, long-distance communication, and many more. It is actually very difficult to come across large machinery or electronic devices that do not implement digital know-how in one way or another. However, digitalization has also brought in several malice and that is exactly what we are going to discuss today.

Table of Contents

Disadvantages of Digitalization

1. Terrorism & Crime

One of the biggest disadvantages of digitalization is the relative anonymity enjoyed by users. Terrorists often use various social media platforms for promoting their heinous crimes and encouraging others to follow suit. Pedophiles also use different online chat rooms for hunting down potential victims and this leads to a steep increase in crime rates around the globe.

2. Confidentiality Of Data

Digital devices can store large amounts of data and even cross-link them with other datasets for being updated automatically when one variable is changed. However, these data also consist of private information belonging to individuals and organisations which become vulnerable to hacking and phishing threats. A single breach can hand over your sensitive information to criminals, business rivals, terrorists and other malign entities.

Also Read: Top Ways of Machine Learning Technology Impacts Our Life?

3. Privacy Woes

Digital technology makes it very difficult to maintain personal privacy as all of our information is stored somewhere in one or other electronic devices. You can take the basic example of social media sites where we post fun-filled photographs that might even be accessed by employers and give out a negative impression about your personality.

4. Work Pressure

The advent of digitalization has made it difficult for employees to maintain a proper work-life balance. Traditionally people used to work with bulky computers and files which were difficult to carry around. But digital technology has presented us with smart gadgets like tabs and laptops which help in taking the work to wherever you go. This means you might have to prepare that urgent presentation even on weekends if your boss demands so.

4. Complexity Of Work

One of the potent disadvantages of digitalization is the growing complexity of both work and play. Earlier mechanics used to repair our cars which have been replaced in modern times by a computer programme and robotics. But this is becoming difficult for laymen who do not possess knowledge in either of the frontiers. The service sector is also losing out on its human aspect with the growing advent of digitalization.

5. Insecurity Oh Job

Earlier we had to be physically present for performing a job. But digital technology has made things easier with the use of the internet. The growth of digitization has attained greater heights amidst the COVID-19 pandemic as people are searching for new and improved means of getting the work done without leaving their homes.

While it has added a solid boost to the work-from-home culture, it has also made employees more vulnerable to job loss. This holds especially true in a low wage economy where every third worker can take your job. Humans are also threatened by the speed, accuracy and affordability of computers at workplace. Very soon, vehicles are going to get automated and this will create a lacuna in the delivery and driving job market.

5. Increasing Affinity Towards Gadgets

We can hardly think of a day without our precious smartphones, laptops and other digital gadgets. The level of reliance is such, that we have actually forgotten the contact details of our closest relatives and friends as the smart devices does all that on our behalf.

We also store tonnes of other information ranging from photographs to texts and other personal data in our phones. This can add up to the level of trouble if we ever end up losing our phones or they run out of power before an essential data retrieval.

6. Distancing From Friends & Family

There was a time when we used to write letters to our loved ones. This has been replaced in the modern era of digitalization by emails and social media messages which has led to a sense of isolation and social disconnect. Scientific studies have pointed out that the lack of human contact is a big stimulant of mental illness and depression amongst people.

7. Redundancy

Advancement in digital technology makes the old gadgets redundant very soon. Something which was state-of-art a few months back might seem too slow compared to peer products of modern times.

Technological advancements cause newer gadgets to supersede their predecessors which might be incompatible with other devices. This adds up to the level of waste and redundancy as the older digital devices are not considered useful anymore.

Final Words

The Digital revolution is completely revolutionizing our ways of living and interaction. The global IP traffic has attained 150000 GB per second in stark contrast to 100 GB per day three decades back. It is expected to reach 60 zettabytes in 2020 and three times more by 2025.

The spread of artificial intelligence and cloud computing are taking things to an all-new level. These trends are being further accentuated following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, digital technology has also broadened the divide between the growth of countries as some are more digitally connected than others.

The digital economy is determined by ownership of code, data, and infrastructure. 90% of the world’s data centers are situated in richer countries of Western Europe, East Asia, North America, and East Europe while the poorer nations of Africa and Latin America house less than 2% data centers. Herein lies another one of the disadvantages of digitalization as it assists certain countries and sectors more compared to others.

Note: This article was originally published on Answerwatcher. You can see the Original Article on What Are the Downside of Digitalization?