Voices is the Dorset Echo's weekly youth page - written for young people by young people.

Call it cliché, but technology needs to advance smarter, not faster.

As technology advances further into the realm of the incredible with central heating and blinds that can be operated from our phones, I surely cannot be the only one who finds the whole concept a little bit daunting.

Before we begin, I’m not a tin-hatted lunatic who keeps a loaded handgun in case the printer makes a weird noise; however, I am cynical of the rate technology is advancing.

In the grand scheme of things, the internet is very recent technology that has taken the world by storm; in the looming advent of 5G, the world is becoming more connected than ever.

With Cambridge Analytica and Facebook being hit with scandal after scandal of data misuse, it seems humanity’s technology has advanced beyond the realms of what is moral.

There is plenty of evidence of this in the present, with personalised advertising and social media feeds as well as the subsequent effects of people becoming cosy within their own little microcosms, but it’s worth asking is this a good thing?

All anyone can do is predict, but I argue that if we continue accelerating technology and finding more and more ways to keep us hooked to it, there will be negative consequences.

The increasingly rapid speed at which information is transferred may become overwhelmingly fast and the velocity at which adverts and social media tries to grab our attention may throw humanity into a sensory overload.

The pressure of social media on teenagers is a common discussion and I am concerned that the pressure to buy this and be a conversation occurring more and more often.

Psychology Today and numerous other sources have highlighted the negative effects of excessive social media usage amongst other technological influences, so one can assume that things are going to get worse.

Whilst the present influence of technology is a common topic, we need to cast our eyes forward and begin questioning what the future may hold – and how we can make it better.

I am incredibly curious to hear what people have to say on this.

By Oliver Streather-Paul