Computer Technology And Its Impact On Society Essay, Research Paper
Computer Technology and its Impact on Society
By Julie A. Rodgers, For The Paper Store – July 1999
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Most of us are benefiting a great deal from the
technological advances being made in the computer and
industry. Even the writing of this paper would not be
possible, or as probable, without the computer technology
that is available today. From our automobiles to
airplanes, from our employment to our vacations, nearly
everything we do is linked somehow to a computer and the
advancements made in the computer industry. But this does
not necessarily make the technological growth of computers
a good thing for society in general. While it has
certainly given us a great deal of benefits that are
incredibly important, such as life saving devices, it has
also driven us further and further away from living our
lives as human beings, in the purest sense of the meaning.
We are moving further and further away from understanding
what it is to be human and what it is to work and think
independently from technology. This is not necessarily a
good thing.
Back in the earlier days f the computer, we were
truly thrilled with it. Even as short a time ago as the
late 1980?s, we were still unsure of what it was capable
of:
?The advent of the microcomputer has already had
a significant impact on society, but it will be
during the decade of the 1990s that a lasting
impression will be made. Computer technology
took us to the moon in the 1960s, gave us credit
cards in the 1970s, and automated teller
machines and lotteries in the 1980s. Now, at the
beginning of the 1990s, computer technology is
strategically nonexpendable in the corporate
world. The computers that affect the world today
are still mostly mainframes and minicomputers,
but within the next decade the influence of
computing technology will be determined by the
microcomputer? (Helliwell 16).
Much has changed, and not necessarily for the better.
In examining what damage the computer has done, or is
capable of doing, we illustrate a science fiction
scenario. We are all familiar with stories of
civilizations, far in the future, that have incredible
amounts of technology at their fingertips. But in these
science fiction scenarios, we also find that the societies
who have this technology are living off another?s design
and they know little, if anything, about how to operate
the system. They merely enjoy the benefits and live on in
ignorance. Suddenly this society must face a dilemma when
the technology is breaking down, and they do not
understand it enough to fix it. They have lost the
knowledge. While this may seem like a far fetched tale,
it is clearly what many of us are becoming.
Technology, and more importantly, computer
technology, has given us a great deal of benefits over the
relatively short span of its life thus far. We are now
communicating with people, and nations, in ways never
dreamed of. The planet is becoming more and more unified
in many ways, all due to the computer and computer
technology. Hospitals and the health industry have
obtained the capability to help many more people and save
more lives, through the advances in computer technology.
People are able to work at home more now, than they have
in years, due to the communication abilities made possible
by the computer, an issue which may well help many family
structures in the country. But, despite all of the great
advances that have been made with computers, the
disadvantages may well, far outweigh the advantages,
merely because too many people are ignorant and
essentially ?go with the flow,? never once examining their
lives in relationship to whether computers have helped
them or harmed them.
To start with, people rely far too much on computers,
much like the science fiction scenario. For example, when
making flight reservations, and even when taking a flight,
we do not stop and consider the fact that we are literally
putting our lives in the hands of a computer. When
computers were relatively new, there were numerous times
when nuclear war between Russia and the United States was
almost a reality due to a malfunction of a computer. When
we turn on our lights, turn on our water, pay any bills,
or pay for anything at the store, we are relying on
computers. What happens if one machine fails? A simple
inconvenience can put us in a situation where we are
literally lost as to what to do. For example, recently in
the grocery store, which is in the town this writer lives
in, was out of milk due to a failure in power and computer
communications at a dairy. How many people were without
milk for a day? Did it make any of those people stop and
think about how reliant they have become on computers and
computer technology? Probably not, and if so, it probably
only lasted for the day they had no milk. We are becoming
a people that do not know how to live or survive without
technology, much less computer technology.
Computers, and home computers, are becoming more and
more widely used, obviously making a big change in many
people?s lives. For example, our children now have access
to the entire country, including many people and pieces of
information that they may well not be ready for. How many
talk shows have we seen, or heard about, where they talk
of young girls being lied to and lured away by someone
they met on the internet? How many people do we personally
know who have been influenced one way or another by the
internet and people they have met on the internet? Our
society is changing, and in many ways, aside from reliance
and human survival basics, we are becoming a very new race
of humans here in this country.
One of the biggest complaints, in relationship to the
Internet, has been pornography. While many of these people
who are complaining about it are essentially people who
would like to thwart our rights as Americans, there is a
great deal of negativity attached to the reality of
pornography on the Internet. Pornography has been proven
to boost the violent level of men with any tendency for
such behavior, and it has been proven to instigate
incidents of sexual harassment, even among the so-called
?enlightened? college group. It is available, in the
privacy of one?s own home, with the use of the computer.
It is relatively free, and allows the viewer total
anonymity. In addition to pornography, there is also a
very new trend taking place, which has a sexual nature, in
relationship to the internet. This is what is know as
cybersex. marriages and otherwise normal relationships,
have been destroyed due to the fact that people can sign
on the computer and have cybersex (written computer
communication) with complete strangers. If you go into any
chat room on the internet you will find people asking for
cybersex or talking about sex in general. While this is
not necessarily a bad thing in itself, ensuring many
people are having the safest sex they can, it is also an
indicator of where this society is going in general, when
it comes to the computer. Not only do we rely on it, but
what we have a tendency to use it for is secretive actions
that we would not normally involve ourselves in. In some
ways, it brings out the worst side of people, for they can
be as deceptive and unrealistic as they want. But the
problem remains that while ?advances in technology have
changed this country from a stable agricultural and
commercial society to a modern industrial society and
although some of the changes have not been good, few
people would want to resign themselves to the limitations
of the old days? (Brooks 96).
There is, undoubtedly, a great deal to be gained from
the computer and the computer industry, but the problem is
with the people as a whole. Most people are not looking at
the computer as a tool, but rather a complete way of life
that helps them escape from reality and from real
knowledge and real work. Morris states that this is even
the case with education and our children: ?But society
must be wary of trusting a substantial amount of the
education of its children to sophisticated machines and
technological innovations? (11). The point is, computers
are not bad, nor are they negative, just like many other
objects in our material world are not bad or negative. It
is all in how we use them and how we rely on them that
makes a situation or reality a negative one. There are, as
mentioned, many ways in which computers have helped our
society, but if we continue in our ignorance, we may find
that we have lost all we have to the world of computers.
Bibliography
Brooks, Doug. ?Technology keeps the U.S. moving at full
throttle. (column).,? Government Computer News,
(1988) : October, v7 n22, pp. 96(1).
Helliwell, John.?Waiting for the true impact of PCs on
society. (The Hard Edge) (column).,? PC Week, (1989) :
December, v6 n51, pp. 16(1).
Morris, James M.. ?The human touch. (computer information
technology and education).,? The Wilson Quarterly,
(1998) : Autumn, v22 n4, pp. 11(2).