The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Computer Technology, Research Paper Example

Introduction

The universal presence of computer technology has brought with it an equally immense range of issues. Even as people globally embrace each new technology, concerns are raised as to how truly beneficial reliance on these technologies is: “We depend so much on computers that, when something around us goes wrong, it is normally because of a computer glitch” (Salomon, 2006, p. 10). Then, the sedentary nature of computer work brings up health questions: “…The high prevalence of a sedentary, inactive lifestyle (is) a huge threat to general health” (Kirch, 2008, p. 851).  The very information computers allow access to also create a concern that people will increasingly let them “do their thinking for them”. Such issues notwithstanding, two realities are evident: the technology is here to stay, and mankind has already derived enormous benefits from it. Computer technology is, ultimately, a resource, and how effective or damaging that resource is depends entirely on how people employ it.

Computer Technology as a Fixture in Modern Life

In historical terms, and employing traditional time frames of vast societal change, the advent of computer technology is unprecedented. The industrial revolution, depending upon which nation is examined and the degree of expansion, occurred over periods ranging from several decades to over two centuries. The automobile and film industries exploded far more dramatically, and each within a matter of ten to twenty years. Their impacts were far-reaching and resilient, yet they were, and remain, adjuncts to living and not the pervasive element within it that computer technology has become.

Since approximately the early 1980s, and accelerating dramatically in the 1990s, computer technology has become a foundational component in every aspect of modern life. More and more people rely upon email and text messaging, rather than telephones, to communicate. Business and trade, from the smallest shop to the most monolithic corporations, conduct its commerce through computer systems, and globally. National defense systems employ sophisticated computers to plan and execute every conceivable maneuver or exercise, in war and in peacetime. As regards education: “Practically every developed country now has a detailed ‘educational ICT strategy’ based around the broad aim of encouraging and supporting schools’ use of computers, the Internet, and other digital technology” (Selwyn, 2010,  p. 23).

Moreover, and just as influentially, the computer is a comfort factor in the average life. People turn to it for virtually every form of entertainment, from music to the films largely produced with computer imaging and technology. Social and dating networks also flourish as computer offerings, and the relatively recent days when men and women would not consider meeting someone encountered online are, essentially, obsolete. In serving as complex, multifaceted channels of communication and sources of limitless information and products, computer technology is now completely interwoven in the fabric of living.

Proliferation

The extraordinary speed with which computer technology imbedded itself into the world’s affairs is none the less startling when the actual arc of the rise is examined. The technology, though in its infancy and still centered around the concept of the “electronic brain”, gained momentum as far back as the 1960s. The introduction of the microprocessor in the early 1970s, quickened the pace, particularly as increasing amounts of application abilities and information could be contained within smaller and smaller pieces of hardware.

During this period, computer technology was still very much reserved for the fields of business and science. It would take the introduction of the personal computer, then referred to as the “microcomputer”, to truly revolutionize the new industry. In 1977, the Commodore Personal Electronic Transactor (PET), was king of the market, generating sales in the tens of thousands. The accomplishment would be short-lived: “By 1983, Apple had moved from its original headquarters in a Silicon Valley garage into huge new corporate buildings…IBM had already sold over a million PCs” (Edwards, 1997, p. 327).

The extraordinary spike in computer ownership, beginning in the 1980s and reaching fruition ten years later, owed its existence to something other than sophisticated, microchip technology. It needed the Internet. People were typically impressed by what the new machines could do, but they were not actually attracted to them. “Why buy a computer if it didn’t offer some really enticing perks? That attitude began to change in the late 1980s when the Internet opened to public use” (Parson, Oja, 2008,  p. 496). The rest, as is said, is history, and rare today is the person without at least one personal computer device.

Global Dependence

In a very real sense, it is inherently within the nature of any technology to create the need for it. The paradox is explicable, particularly when mass usage follows on the heels of the technology’s introduction. As the invention of the printing press in the 1400s permitted a mass distribution of reading material, a previously largely illiterate public simultaneously learned to read and demanded more text. As the advent of the railroad systems vastly lessened traveling times, entire societal functions were altered to reflect, and then require, the new and faster transportation. The transition from unusual and new implement to vital component of living is brief, when the technology is greatly empowering.

Computer technology, more than any other innovation, embodies this process. It exceeds even the printing press in global impact by virtue of its innate ability to disregard physical boundaries; satellites and cables allow computer transmissions to cross the world in a matter of a few seconds. Add to this the enormous capabilities of the technology itself, in storing and disseminating every form of actual input known to man, and it is unsurprising that computers have become utterly essential elements of modern life, and on a worldwide basis.

It is important to note, however, that the technology itself is not the actual impetus for its vast success. The nations of the world, and the communities within each, thoroughly depend upon computer use, yet it is still nothing more than a means to accomplish what human beings wish to achieve. “Globalization is essentially a human phenomenon, not a technological one; and the main drivers for the establishment and uses of disseminative systems are…profit, convenience, greed, relative advantage, curiosity…” (Whitman, 2005, p. 104).

Ultimately, it is the desires and motivations of mankind that so potently enable computer technology. It is, simply, the fastest and easiest means yet devised for man to conduct virtually every affair of living, from social interacting to negotiating business. What people wish to do, moreover, is abetted by information, and this is true of every sphere of living as well, from medical research to governmental legislation. As both repository of limitless sources of data, and as nearly instantaneous mode of transferring it, computer technology merits the global dependence upon it in evidence today.

Dangers and Drawbacks to Computer Technology

Not unexpectedly, as computer technology became the pervasive force in living it now is, an exponentially growing alarm was sounded in regard to the many and varied dangers such a monolithic presence creates. Some of these concerns are more ideological; the computer, it is felt, removes the need for independent thought, as well as the intellectual skills required in the processes of discovery and learning. It is as well a soulless and destructive element, one that enslaves and weakens its most enthusiastic users.

It is tempting to assert that such thinking is merely reactionary, and prompted by fear. Most certainly, any technology gaining such enormous sway must be suspect, if only by virtue of the size of the impact; when billions of people, within a short span of time, become reliant upon anything – as has not, again, happened to this extent in history – there is inevitably a disturbed response. Then, that the technology is indeed complex and electronic renders it all the more likely to be categorized as intrinsically dehumanizing, and a drawback to human development.

Computer Technology as Dehumanizing and/or Dangerous

The ideological concerns that computers will ultimately harm mankind reflect all the basic dilemmas associated with computer technology, as will be examined shortly. Essentially, such concerns do themselves what they accuse the machines of doing, for they give to the machine an authority it does not possess. Such fears express both a distinct sense of expectation of weakness within humanity, and attribute a consciousness to what has none.

With regard to the former issue, it may be averred that there is reason to believe humanity will greatly go wrong with a new “toy” in its hands. It has, regrettably, happened before. This mode of thinking, however, nonetheless absolves people of the basic responsibility fundamental to every human enterprise: that of taking responsibility for the thing itself. The size, power, or universality of a thing may not dictate, ever, how that thing is employed by mankind. The technology may only be dangerous when it is wielded in a dangerous way, and it is irrelevant and misguided to imbue a set of circuitry with the power to make ethical decisions. We may have come a long way from the early “electronic brains”, but the computer is, happily, still nothing more than what we build it to be.

The second objection, that the technology dehumanizes and thwarts human growth, is equally understandable, certainly at first glance. Computer technology, in changing the way people access information, may be said to change development, because the ease it offers reduces time-honored means of obtaining the same results. Children in school do not have to find their way through complicated and clumsy avenues to research; they type in a phrase, search, and get what they need in seconds. Thus it is believed, and widely so, that Internet access and computer technology, in rendering information so painlessly, devalue the achievement by stripping the process of effort.

This is a point of view not readily dismissed. Mankind has had, bluntly, thousands of years of instruction as to how any sort of learning must occur. Learning, on any level, has become inextricably associated with painstaking commitment, energy, and investments of time. To the average mind, then, something must not be correct when learning can happen with such little labor. It is furthermore believed, then, that the learner has less regard for the knowledge or information obtained so easily.

Once again, then, it is evident that the potential dangers are wholly within mankind’s veto. If technology is in place that radically facilitates processes which beforehand demanded far more rigorous application, it is then the obligation of humanity to alter its expectations and parameters in regard to learning. “The computers in our midst have increasingly forced us to discard or revise what we knew as the familiar truth” (Browne, 2001, p. 197). In this instance, the familiar truth, long taken for granted as a fundamental reality, is that education in any mode both requires diligent effort and is substantiated by it.

However, to charge the technology with encouraging weakness, or in devaluing a thing as excellent as learning, is not unlike disputing the invention of the plow because more fields may be planted than previous methods allowed. Farmers equipped with that particular technology did not confine themselves to merely attending to the acreage they had before the advent of the machine; they took the plow into new fields because additional energy and time were available, and greater productivity could be achieved.

The analogy is valid, if primitive. On as fundamental level as may be seen, a tool is never anything more than that, and computer technology is a tool. It is, in all its manifestations, a device enabling speed and various abilities of garnering and relaying information. In learning, in social interacting, and even in more spiritual avocations, it will reveal what is asked of it, to be employed by the petitioner as is deemed necessary. Rather, then, rebuke the technology for clearing the path, the greater focus should be on how much more is now possible.

A similar responsibility exists wherein the more tangible dangers of computer access and technology arise; namely, the abuse of information and subsequent criminal opportunities, and to every degree. People are terrified of identity theft, a crime very much created by technology and data storage systems. Security on national levels may be compromised through network hacking and illegal activity, and the very dependence upon computers systems to regulate military operations renders this a frightening eventuality.

There is, of course, more to this scenario:  “The rise of computer use and ownership has seen a corresponding rise in the use of computers in criminal activity….Even an illegal drug gang must keep records of sales and purchases…” (Gardner, Anderson, 2008, p. 372). Then, as the Enron debacle blatantly demonstrated, the ease available today in shifting numbers through computer systems may greatly enhance fraud on truly staggering levels. Were all of that insufficient, there was the Y2K scare of 2000, when a general panic took hold over a resetting of the world’s computer systems and a subsequent collapse in the global network. Nor was the panic restricted to a media-crazed public: “The Department of Defense shut down many military websites over the year 2000’s New Year holiday weekend” (Dunnigan, 2003, p. 76).

Y2K,  of course, did not occur. The anticipation experienced then, however, was valuable in several ways, and chiefly to reinforce a pivotal element related to the predominantly expressed issues raised against computer technology. At that time, and equipped with technology antiquated by today’s standards, people were gripped by a dread of having lost control of the systems they had embraced. It was an Orwellian moment in the world’s history, when it appeared that humanity had stumbled into a futuristic nightmare of its own making. As nothing happened, a worldwide sigh of relief was heard.

However, and crucially, a new awareness was born as to the obligations inherent in relying upon such technology. There had been a prevalent attitude of security in the common mind regarding computer activity; people were, on the whole, so swept up by its extraordinarily swift presence and capabilities that little thought had been given to what could go wrong. Y2K brought with it no global disasters and massive shutdowns of power systems, but it did generate a needed and proactive sense of the totality, and vast power, of the world’s computers. It served, essentially, as a necessary reminder that, as with education and all other forms of human endeavor, it is up to the human to ensure that the systems do no more than what is desired from them, nor give up information when not authorized by the right party.

Unhealthy Consequences of Computer Technology

In the arena wherein computer technology is accused of being influential in promoting a lack of fitness in adults and children, there is small research as yet done. Facts are few, and generalized remarks typically read as follows: “Increasing automation and computer use has led to a substantial decline in occupational physical activity energy expenditure” (Hu, 2008, p. 304).

It is not generally disputable that sitting at a computer is a sedentary, and consequently less than fitness-inspiring, activity. Nor can it be reasonably argued that enormous numbers of people are engaging in this relatively passive activity for hours at a time in modern life, and both at work and at leisure. The computer has clearly and dramatically changed activity levels, and concerns are voiced in particular at the unhealthy consequences for children.

The argument is reminiscent of that raised when televisions became household staples, and it may be advisable to consider how that specific, single technology has translated, decades later, into modern levels of health. It is true that obesity is an issue of global proportions, as it is equally true that its disturbing rise coincides with the last few generations.

However, even assuming that television and computers, combined with other technologies easing physical demands on a society, are indeed factors, the inescapable conclusion reflects that reached upon examining the potentially poor influences of computer technology on learning and human advancement. Once again, it is a case of humanity’s need to compensate for a convenience it set in place. Ultimately, no rational person can blame hours in front of a computer, either at work or at home, for poor fitness or obesity. So, too, is a parent responsible for seeing to it that their children balance exercise with computer time. Moreover, in a striking irony, the computers allow unlimited access to all the information anyone would require, in regard to fitness and health. Here, again, the machine is just the machine, and may not be unjustly blamed for repercussions wholly in the hands of its users.

The Value of Computer Technology

“Storability, portability, and accessibility of information are essential to today’s concept of mass communication” (Biagi, 2006, p. 16). That this need exists is, as has been noted, largely the result of the technology itself.

There is no field of endeavor or activity known to man today in which computer technology does not in some fashion play a part. It enhances and improves medical research, and may transmit vital medical information instantaneously. It affords business a vast array of tools with which to gauge its current impact, restructure and expedite it manufactures and workforces, and reliably foresee marketing trends pivotal to it. Then, it enables modes of communication between people perfectly adaptable to social intercourse on whatever level they wish to engage upon. It is, plainly speaking, the technology of living.

Universality and Options

An extraordinarily simple and enormously influential aspect to computer technology is, as mentioned, its reliance upon itself. Strictly speaking, a computer must be able to speak to another computer, if information and communication are to be had. Consequently, the proliferation of the technology is a requirement of the technology itself, and this factor is responsible for the global access currently shaping the modern world. The natural result of this is an expanding of cultural and societal horizons; as the American business trades with the Asian market, communication breeds familiarity, and the technology breaches gulfs between nations previously only connected through warfare. As data storage resources are virtually unlimited, opportunities to increase these familiarities and foster mutual regard increase to the proportion of all that may be exchanged.

Enabling Consequences

Computer technology is not merely new; it is evolving constantly, and mankind has some difficulty in keeping pace with the advantages it affords. Because of this lag, suspicion of the technology creates mistrust, and people fear a diminishing of human potentials, and drive.

What is to be looked for, then, is the day when human expectations rise to meet the scope of opportunity now available for them. It is entirely possible that people are still very much in an “adolescent” phase, in regard to computers; the thrill factor is still present because the capabilities of the machines are still too stunning. When that fades, however, real human growth can flourish, and in ways previously unimaginable.

Conclusion

Those who would resist the tide of computer technology make the mistake of attributing to technology the prerogatives of controlling it. If people are getting less exercise because their work is now solely done on a chair in front of a computer, the computer is not to blame, for it is the greater responsibility of people to attend to all of their own needs irrespective of conveniences. Then, no mind truly eager to gain information will not be further spurred on by the unprecedented knowledge now available through computer technology: “…There is compelling evidence that technology use can enhance the processes of teaching and learning…” (Vrasidas, Glass, 2005, p. 29). By and large, computer technology is a remarkable, expanding asset.

References

Biagi, S. (2006.) Media/Impact: An Introduction to Mass Media. Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning.

Browne, P. (2001.) The Guide to United States Popular Culture. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.

Dunnigan, J. F. (2003.) The Next War Zone: Confronting the Global Threat of Cyberterrorism. New York, NY: Citadel Press Books.

Edwards, P. N. (1997.) The Closed World: Computers and the Politics of Discourse in Cold War America. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Gardner, T. J., and Anderson, T. M.  (2008.) Criminal Law. Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning. Kirch, W. (2008.) Encyclopedia of Public Health. New York, NY: Springer.

Hu, F. B. (2008.) Obesity Epidemiology. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Parsons, J. J., and Oja, D. (2008.) New Perspectives on Computer Concepts, 11^th Edition. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

Salomon, D. (2006.) Foundations of Computer Security. New York, NY: Springer.

Selwyn, N. (2010.) Schools and Schooling in the Digital Age. New York, NY: Taylor & Francis.

Vrasidas, C., and Glass, G. V. (2005.) Preparing Teachers to Teach with Technology. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.

Whitman, J. (2005.)  The Limits of Global Governance. New York, NY: Psychology Press.