Technology and Developing Countries

The technological revolution reshaped the way we view the world around us in the last two to three decades and changed the way we perceive our life. Technological advancement almost touched on every aspect of our life from Health (MRI as an example), Agriculture (IoT application), Transportation to Communication.

In today’s world it is not strange for two people to conversate face to face in real time with each other using (Skype or Facetime) and each one of them is in a different continent, which is revolutionary if you think about it. Its easier to do business now more than ever before in the history of mankind because we have tools like emails and digital signatures. Technological advancement gave a big push to the idea of globalization where the whole world is like a small village and its already happening with the expansion of the internet. If we look at manufacturing and production, we find that the introduction of robots increased the efficiency and production volume and its expected to reach even higher numbers with the introduction of AI while reducing the number of employees. But does poor countries benefit from these technological advancements as much as developed countries.

Developing countries are usually at the receiving end of the technology and most of the people in these countries are consumers, which increase the imports and expenditures of the country and for these countries to produce a competitive product that could compete against the giants of technology is very hard because it needs infrastructure like roads, stable electricity and manufacturers. Also, introducing the AI and robotics into manufacturing can lead to higher unemployment rate that could affect the stability of the political systems of these developing countries, because unlike developed countries, poor countries doesn’t have the luxury of introducing something like UBI (Universal Basic Income) to its citizen.

Furthermore, the introduction of Social media in these developing countries affected the productivity level of employees and government workers significantly and being present on social media become more important than finishing the task in hand. Also, through social media and the constant comparison with others, people in developing countries started to be more and more unsatisfied with living condition of the their countries and the way their ancestors live their life and we can see the effect of that on the mass immigration waves to the western world from the Africa, Asia and part of the middle east in an attempt to live like what they see on social media. And this cost these developing countries brilliant minds and human resources that could have been used to develop their country.

Technology is very important pillar of our modern life and probably the future as well, but its not always rosy with the introduction of technology into the world and some areas might benefit more than others from the technological advancement.