Have we become too dependent on computers?
In today’s world, the technology is increasing fast. Our new generation is now more modern then we can imagine. People are depending on technology for all their work. In all this I think they have forgotten something which is called ‘hard work’. We really are too much depending on computers? Computers automated processes that previously had to be performed in a repetitive way.
The first computer was built more than fifty years ago, and did not penetrate the world until about twenty years ago. Before that, computers were very expensive, and an individual could not imagine owning one. Not many organizations even had a chance to buy one, since the machines were so expensive, and hard to find in the market. Personal computers were introduced in early eighties, and they have changed our lives in a significant manner. It is even hard to imagine a world without computers, since the world has become so dependent on them. For example, the agony a bank undergoes, when the main computer is not functioning, is enormously great, the customers complain of inadequate services, and even the employees’ panic in response. If such a thing happens to a bank, and the chaos is that much, what would be things like if the Internet broke down in the entire world? It is unimaginable.
It is like the computer is the main thing controlling the activities of this world. It is amazing how computers can be used to manufacture even more sophisticated computers with greater processing speed, and computing power of handling up to 5 billion instructions in a second of time .This is big. This is a clear indication that a human brain will be left behind in the future, because nobody will bother to know, how the whole system works. The scholars will no longer use paper books, but instead they will prefer the use of e-books on the iPads .The books in the stores and major books will no longer have meaning to school-going children, because access to laptops and customized computers, which are reliable and easy to use, will be free. Computers have brought a lot of benefits, but can also lead to a disaster.
It is possible to imagine somebody on the ground or control tower of an airport, controlling a flight from the ground, and transporting people from one zone to another by use of a computer. The idea can succeed, but in case of a failure in the system, planes can crash. It is inevitably certain that the future advancement of technology is going to be increasingly complex. In the world today, computers, most of the time, make our work easier, and also gives us alternative ways of learning about things we don’t know. They give us the power to do many things, while just work under the comfort of their homes. Nowadays, one can opt to do shopping online, chat with so many people online, using the social sites like Facebook, and keep in touch with them, and even take an option of studying online.
Computers make it easier to organize and record information, and also entertain us with computer games. In the area of medical science, computers have also found application in that field (Berry 40). Space missions are also controlled by computers. In economics, the use of computer is rather instrumental, because it can analyze and give a clear indication how a variable can affect the entire stock market. It is used to accurately predict sales, and carry out future analysis to determine the viability of a proposed project together with its returns. And moreover, financial organizations, such as banks, have employed the use of computers to accomplish transactions. The modern communication system that includes the Internet is a hundred percent based on computers.
Computers make it possible for us to be in touch with each other, and chat, as if we are close, though people can be located thousands of miles away, in other country, or even continent (Reimer 62). According to Atkinson (n.p.), computers, on the other hand, are very helpful in society, because they help us move forward faster with much higher pace than we would move without them. The world without computers would have been the same like in the 19th century, before the invention of modern technologies. The computer is becoming addictive to people. There are people, living all over the world, that can’t just finish a day without sitting in front of computer to either play games, or listen to music. Children that once used to go to the playground spend most of the time indoors, either playing computer games, or chatting with friends online. This is becoming more of a social concern than it is considered.
This affects most children negatively, because children that are used to playing violent video games that involve fighting, boxing, and shooting develop characteristics that emulate the one they see in such computer games. Computers also expose children to developing bad behavior at a young age. Most parents fail to put adequate filters to deny their children to pornographic sites on the Internet. This negatively affects the social development of children. Most people today cannot imagine the world without computers, and especially the Internet. If such modern IT (information technology) advantages disappear, this will return the world back into the Colonial Times, where information was not available to the public and the only knowledge that one was given was the one received at school. In the world today, computers with different applications and the Internet have made absolutely all the information available virtually to everyone in the world.
They have made everything easier, and often the decision to employ the use of a computer leads to time saving. This time save is plowed back, and used to boost interaction with family members, friends and many others without depending so much on them. People, like the freelancers, can work comfortably from home, and earn much more, than those who go to work on the daily routine. In addition to that, people are using computers to pay bills. In ancient times, people had to go physically to the payment bureau to pay their bills. Internet and credit card transactions can be used to pay bills instantly from the comfort of one’s seat at home, or office. Those looking for jobs and the employers do not need to publish an advert on the dailies to look for an employee with specific qualification nowadays, instead, at the click of a mouse, they can advertise on the Internet on their websites, and the public will get the advert instantly. If computers crash, all the things will have to be averted to the old way of doing.
The computers have also controlled the world in so many ways, that it is hard to imagine the world without them. Memorizing things is a thing overtaken by time from many people. People are even not able to remember their passport number, pin numbers, or even their phone number. On the other hand, many people said that they are losing their ability to function without a computer. Memorization is a thing of the past, we now depend on our cell phones to have the phone number of everyone we know and we no longer can even remember the phone number of our parents or friends. We no longer worry about what we are writing or typing because we all use a word processing program that has spellchecker and checks for grammar mistakes. So as you can see we depend on computers too much and are losing our ability to memorize, type, spell, or even write a grammatical correct sentence.
However some people show their opinion that they allow us to perform better and produce more. Computers are tools, and you can never be too dependent on tools. Tools allow us to perform better and produce more. When I was in high school, research meant a trip to the library, finding the right book, and then taking notes with pencil and paper. This time, research is going online and cutting and pasting. It is bad, because it makes us really dependence on that machine. Without computers we still can eat, we can drink, we can sleep….many more……..yes we can say computers help us in our daily life for calculating, business, information, news, etc. Another thing is that people in our forefather’s day were also living their lives without computers. Depending on computers also makes us lazy. So we are not too dependent on computers and we can live a health, wealth and happy life!
The conclusion is how we divide it. Whether we are in an urgent or not to use computer, so we have to know when we must use that machine. Of course, the computer is the only machine that is very effective at all to use when doing a job, but be careful because they can affect our mind and our health.
