_Computers in Society _
By: Andrew
ÿ 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 mans 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 apparentOne
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 societys 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 todays 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.
Word Count: 731
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