It would not be wrong to say that the Internet of Things (iOT) has changed the entire face of technology today and how people look at it. iOT has made the connectivity of human beings with technology much easier than it was way back a few years ago. But as it is said that anything in excess has its own consequences associated with it, and so is the case with the internet of things as well. In this article, we will extensively be looking at the disadvantages of the internet of things and how it is impacting human lives to a great extent.
Let us first define the term Internet of Things before looking at its negative impact. iOT is nothing but a network of different physical devices connected over the internet which are used to connect a set of people together. A very common example for a layman to understand this is a chat space where you can converse with your known ones over the internet. However, iOT does not restrict itself to sharing the data between two human beings only, and it also involves the data sharing between a human and a physical device or even between two physical devices.
Disadvantages of the Internet of Things
In contrast to the countless advantages of the Internet of Things, there are many disadvantages as well which need to be looked at considerably. Let us look at these cons one by one.
1. Data Breaching
Data breaching has become the most common activity among cybercriminals over the last few years since they have started targeting iOT. Many big corporations have been victims of such cyber-crimes where the data of their thousands of users have been exposed, resulting in their data security law breaches. Even various government systems that are supposed to have high-end security systems embedded have fallen for such crimes where a huge amount of confidential information has landed in the hacker's hands.
2. Privacy and Security Issues
With the intervention of iOT in our day-to-day life, there has been an exposure to a high risk of losing our private information over the internet. Whatever information is being shared over the internet will remain there forever, providing the hackers with the chance to look and misuse that information for their benefit. Today we have various iOT devices connected with our work devices and mobile phones and thus sending our private data over the internet. By doing this, we are getting exposed to the eyes of the hackers who can take the liberty of this access to our private information like our private account login credentials, bank account login details, etc. A very common consequence of this is email scams and fake phone calls that people receive almost every day, leading to various mishaps. How are they getting your private mobile numbers and email addresses? It's because this information is already present on the internet somewhere!
3. Increasing Unemployment
With iOT devices automating most of the routine activities in our workspaces, the risk of people getting fired for what they were doing has increased tremendously. And with its increasing and newer innovations every day, the human requirement is becoming negligible, whereas the skill expectations are touching the skies. Today we have robots embedded with artificial intelligence replacing human waiters, smart surveillance cameras that have excluded the need to employ security staff and even smart washing machines to reduce human interference with even routine necessary activities. Hence, it would not be wrong to say that we are not very far away from the times when we will have automated maids in our houses for our basic functional jobs.
4. Losing the Control of Our Lives
Have you ever noticed what all your family members are doing whenever there is an electricity breakout or internet breakout in your area? People do not like to converse directly over face these days. Rather they feel more comfortable and connected with their fellow beings over the internet. With the availability of countless applications for almost all of our activities and interests, people have become highly dependent on the iOT technology. There would be a huge disruption in one's day-to-day life when the iOT infrastructure crashes someday, even if that would be for a shorter time period.
5. Increasing Health Problems
Nowadays, people have devices and applications for almost every work that they were doing back a few years ago for basic survival, which made them fit both physically and mentally. But now, people have become more reliable on iOT devices and do not like to move a lot. These days we are getting everything we want by staying in one place and not moving a bit which is resulting in major health issues. This is one major reason that people are becoming more aware of the Physiotherapy profession these days. Moreover, the introduction of AR and VR, AR (augmented reality) and VR (virtual reality) with iOT has made our kids and the young generation idler and less social interaction. They do not like to go outside and share much with their families, but all they want to do is spend more time playing on their devices, exploring what new features have been developed in the upgraded versions of their smartwatches, etc.
Conclusion
With the growing technology, every day, there will be an introduction of some new iOT device that would promise us to make our lives easier than it already is at present. And we all would accept the same happily with open arms, but it would be foolish to do this with closed eyes. Make wiser choices about when and where to share your private information, and do not rely on such devices more than required. We should not let the new iOT interventions dominate our lifestyles and rather make it act as a boon for ourselves. Decrease the usage of iOT devices in your daily life.