The bad and the ugly: A systematic review of technology's negative impacts' mentions in literature from 2005 to 2020

Abstract

In an era of ubiquitous presence of several formats of technology throughout all areas of human interaction, it seems pertinent to assess the complete spectrum of possible impacts such technologies may have: not just the good, but the bad and the ugly too. Scientific research has been substantial on its efforts to map technology's benefits from which humans may profit on a myriad of activities. This is particularly evident in recent fields of study, such as gamification applications to marketing, education or business. However, it could be argued that in-depth analysis of potential nefarious impacts of technology use is currently lacking. In this paper, we perform a systematic review of contributions from top scientific publications over the last fifteen years in search of their concerns over the implementation and usage of technology, to gather proof that this is a promising study field, which deserves further study. Due to the limited literature and empirical evidence on the topic, this study contributes to better understand of nefarious impacts and limitations of technology.