I’m, like, a huge, huge, huge fan of social media. I’m a member of almost every site: Facebook? Twitter? Instagram? Whatever you got, I’ve probably visited it over 100 times already. And being a huge social media fan is inevitably tied to being a huge fan of technology. I’m so ridiculously interested and fascinated by technology and how it is ever changing, constantly improving. I’m, like, totally obsessed with my iPhone, and I see no fault in it, like, ever. But it’s been brought to my attention that sometimes technology can cause some really big problems as well as being beneficial. And a good example of this was WW1.
Technology played a really important role in determining tactics for the war. So, like, during WW1, a lot of new weapons were invented and used, and for the first time. World War One meant the introduction and use of machine guns, rifles, grenades, trench warfare, barbed wire, poison gas, tanks, air and naval warfare, submarines and others. These all affected the tactics for war, and as such the ways war played out. England chose to focus on their navy and strengthening it, which influenced and provoked Germany and others. Japan entered the war for this reason. The introduction of machine guns and all the other weapons all affected the way countries chose to fight, and as such, their influence on the war and it’s eventual outcome. In fact, all of these technological advancements probably wouldn’t have been so popularized and used to now if not for World War One. To this day, wars all over, like in Syria, or Iraq, or Israel, technological tactics similar to those of World War One are used, and in a way we “owe” them for that. Although, really, do we “owe” them and see this positively, or negatively? If not for all these, like, “advancements”, or whatever, society might have been able to “advance” a lot more than it did, and maybe we wouldn’t have as many wars and problems as we do. My dad always says that the iPhone is making us more stupid and ruining the world, not helping it. Technology has it’s benefits, but in terms of weaponry (or the iPhone, in my father’s eyes) in WW1, it had a really significant effect on the tactics chosen, and such, on the consequences.
The outcome of the war was intense: things were not looking good. There was serious and heavy consequences on the countries, and this was due to the technology used. There was an incredible amount of lives lost in this war, and that was greatly affected by the technology used: it succeeded in taking away hundreds of lives. In addition, because the technology was new to them, people were simply excited to use it and may not have been using the right tactics for it, causing an unnecessary amount of deaths. Germany was left, like, totally demolished because of bombing and such, leaving it in terrible conditions. If these had not happened, and the technology had not existed to make them happen, then Germany may not have become as weak as it did, and WW2 may never have occurred. Airmen fighting were dying constantly, because “dogfights” or aggressive fights between planes were common. Germany regularly used poison gas, and other countries did too: this led to a lot of suffering of citizens and soldiers, and death as well. The “advancement” of the machine gun was shown during the Battle of the Somme in July 1916 , when German machine guns killed or wounded almost 60,000 British soldiers in ONE day. As said in, “WWI: Technology and the Weapons of War” by A. Torrey McLean, “The British naval blocking of Germany, which was made possible by developments in naval technology, brought a total war to civilians. The blockade caused a famine that finally brought about the collapse of Germany and its allies in late 1918. Starvation and malnutrition continued to take the lives of German adults and children for years after the war.”
So, like, technology played a huge role in WW1. Because of all these technological advancements, countries chose to fight in a certain way. And because they did fight in that way, due to those advancements, the outcomes of the war were unbelievable and drastic. As stated by A. Torrey in “WWI: Technology and the Weapons of War”, “the firing stopped on November 11, 1918, but modern war technology had changed the course of civilization. Millions had been killed, gassed, maimed, or starved. Famine and disease continued to rage through central Europe, taking countless lives. Because of rapid technological advances in every area, the nature of warfare had changed forever, affecting soldiers, airmen, sailors, and civilians alike.” Wars and warfare have drastically changed because of the technological “advancements”, but, like, is that really an “advancement” at all if it brings us back to simplistic ideas of solving issues with violence? Like, I’m totally obsessed with my iPhone, but if less technology meant less wars and less deaths but no Whatsapp, I think I’d be okay with that.
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