Effects of Computers and the Internet on Society, Research Paper Example

Introduction

Technology has completely changed human lives. People use dozens of different technological solutions every day. Television, radio, cell phones, microwave, automobiles, etc. – all these were created to make human lives better, easier, and more convenient. Certainly, people no longer imagine themselves without these technologies; cars make them faster, cell phones make them mobile, and food technologies make them saturated, but the effect of technologies on society is not always positive. Computers and the Internet are demonstrative in a sense that they show both negative and positive effects of technology on society. Although computers and the Internet have significantly enhanced the quality and speed of communication, and although the Internet provides people with unlimited access to vast amounts of information, computers and the Internet are overloaded with negative information content, like child pornography; also, computer games produce negative influence on the human interactions in society.

Computers and the Internet have significantly improved the quality of communication and human interactions in society. The Internet is the tool that links people from different geographic locations and provides unlimited opportunities for communication. “Chat rooms on the Internet are open for people to talk and explore with other people who may live on the other side of the world or the other side of the street. E-Mail is also another popular way to correspond with others” (Ghimire). Beyond communication, computers and the Internet have created additional jobs and professional opportunities: many freelancers work from home and provide their customers with high quality creative products. Stock trading, banking, and e-commerce constantly evolve. Computers work, think, govern, drive, and monitor; they are continuously improved to bring in more and more new functions.

Unfortunately, computers and the Internet also produce negative effects on society: they give unlimited access to negative information content, and very often, computer games and computer addictions negatively influence the quality of human interactions in society. When it comes to computers, computer games can be fairly regarded as the most dangerous and the most negative elements of computer technology. The fact is that “certain video games kill brain stimulators, and they teach kids to kill. The interactive quality, intensity of the violence, and the physiological reactions all serve to connect the players’ feelings of exhilaration to the violent images of video” (Al-Warafy). Computer games often lead to the development of computer addictions: children lose themselves in the Internet space and forget about the role and importance of their connections with family, friends, and peers. Game addictions also lead to violence, which children show and use in their daily interactions with other people. The Internet is overfilled with negative content, like child pornography, and any person can access and use this immoral information. Thus, whether computers are beneficial to society depends on how society can reduce the amount of negative information and to protect children from becoming the victims of their gaming addictions.

Conclusion

Although computers and the Internet provide people with effective means of communication and enormous amounts of information, they also lead to the development of gaming violence and addiction in children, and do not protect users from the negative influence of immoral content. Computers have changed the life of society. People can easily communicate with each other and look for appropriate information in the Internet. However, whether computers are beneficial to society depends on the way this society manages negative content and negative impacts of computers on human psychology.

Works Cited

Al-Warafy, S. “Computer Games Have Negative Effects on Children and Society.” 2008.

Yemen Times. 18 August 2009. http://www.yementimes.com/article.shtml?i=1217&p=lastpage&a=1

Ghimire, S. “Effects of Computers and the Internet on Society.” 2006. The SOP. 18 August 2009 http://thesop.org/technology/2006/12/06/effects-of-computers-and-the-internet-on-society