Computers In Society Essay, Research Paper

 Our lives have been taken over by machines. We live with many different kinds of

machines but the ones that have been changing our lives more than any other machines, are

computers. Computers that we do work on and play on, while at the same time we listen to music

on and chat with a friend in another country on. Today there are very few things that we can say

can not be done on the computer in some form or another. We live in an age where e-commerce

is becoming the norm, where Napster is something that we all familiar with, and a place where

research to some simply means, a click of the mouse. This all is certainly good news. Without

computers society as a whole might not be at the stage that we are at today. People look to

computers for everything and many peoples earnings would not be made without them.

Computers are known by some as man s best friend, and to many it seems that there is no end to

capabilities they harness. Computers, however, do have some drawbacks that may initially be hard

to realize, yet later on might become more apparent.

One challenge in computer technology was reached when computers began to threaten the

jobs and daily wages of our fellow human beings. Initially it is hard to see how computers can

close the doors on employment opportunities when all one can imagine is all the new jobs that will

be available in computer programming, web site managing and other related areas. However,

under closer inspection it can clearly be seen that computers are beginning to limit the job

spectrum in large numbers. Many companies are being struck down simply because the services

that they are provided more easily or cheaper through the internet or computers. Stock brokerages,

for example, are becoming obsolete because web site offer online trading that is cheap, fast, and

available at the touch of a button. Some jobs are disappearing quickly while others are engaged in

a much slower decline. One has no way of knowing, however, at what speed the electronic age

will continue to proceed at. In some cases the amount of jobs taken from the manual aspect of

some service may indeed be equal to the number of new jobs that are introduced by the electronic

facet of that same service. While in others, a job shortage may be created.

What scares me more than a few job shortages is the fact that so many people will be

pursuing careers in some form of computer technology. Society, and those seeking higher

education, more specifically, have the tendency to desire jobs in fields that are booming, where

they feel job security is high. This has the potential to spur myriad problems, and I feel that many

of these problems will pertain to education and schooling. It was important to me to choose to

pursue a career that was primarily a manual occupation. To me, architecture has the perfect

balance of computer aid, and manual drawing. If for any reason computers were made unavailable,

the architect would still flourish.

The problems discussed until now are ones that may indeed have easy solutions or may be

problems that cease to exist. Yet there is one thing that perturbs me more about the furtherance of

the electronic age than anything else. Where should the line be drawn in reference to our

society s dependency upon computers. A great trepidation of mine is that computer information

can be lost, and some information is way to valuable to risk losing. Through many experiences I

have learned that computers are not fail proof and that they do indeed sometimes lose information.

Computers are in fact powerful machines, but too much is taken for granted. If there is one slip of

the button or one wrong click of the mouse how much are we willing to lose.

Computers are verily an important aspect of today s world and should be utilized for all

they can do that the average human brain can not. The risk is there, albeit a small one, that

information in a computer may be lost in an unexpected circumstance, and I think that society

should take this notion much more seriously. I think it is important that our society take caution

using computers, because one mistake can do so much damage.