How IT and Computers have Affected Us

How IT and Computers have Affected Us

Effect on the individual 

• Education

Computers have changed the way we work in school and in education in general. As much as it may seem helpful, it does have its own cons. Why is it good? Computers can be used as a tool to help us research any subject that we might need or want to educate ourselves in. Since the internet has such a vast array of information, we can use it to educate ourselves about everything we would like to know. However, computers aren’t always good. For example,  having such easy access to the internet can be a distraction for a student. This will stop them from learning efficiently and they could possibly fall behind with work. If this happens, the student could get stressed over the fact they are behind and might have further problems.

• Social media

Social media is a fantastic tool. Using social media we can look around for people, groups or organizations and so on that share similar interests or goals. This can help the individual to find friends and groups that they might not be able to find so easily in real life. Social media also allows an individual to showcase their life, themselves, talents and hobbies which can also help out with finding friends and such. Despite the pros of social media, it unfortunately has a multitude of negatives as well. One of them being cyber bullying, This can really upset an individual and sometimes make them quit social media entirely. This is really upsetting since the internet is a tool that can be used freely by everyone.

• Gaming

Gaming is fun and entertaining. A positive thing about gaming is that it helps us kill some time when we are bored and have nothing to do. With gaming you can also play online with your friends or other people which can help you expand your friend group that you can play games with. Additionally, gaming allows us to destress and lets us take our minds off of things when we are in a bad mood. Despite having many pros, Gaming also has a few negative sides, for example, while we are  playing online with our friends or strangers, we can get very toxic with each other when something goes wrong or doesn’t go as we planned and can expand into cyberbullying; but there is always an option to play single player games which can prevent the toxicity.

Effect on society

• Relationships

Computers have also had an impact on society. They can be helpful finding different types of relationships. Computers can do many things, Games and social media allow us to forge relationships, they help us find friends with similar interests and hobbies. Despite having a good impact on relationships, it can also cause us to break or weaken them, for example, if we spend too much time on the internet we may get too engrossed in it and may cause us to get into arguments with our family members or friends when we spend too much time on it. Additionally, due to the internet being so accessible, we may accidentally forge relationships with the wrong people or those that pose a danger to us.

• Entertainment

Entertainment has changed since computers became a reality. We can entertain ourselves in many different ways such as playing video games, watching movies/films and other videos. We can find different hobbies with computers allowing us to search the internet. As much as entertainment is good and healthy for us, it can distract a lot of people. It may become addictive and unhealthy when people start to spend hours upon hours of their time on computers. This can mean getting not enough sleep.

Effect on employment 

• Job losses

As the IT industry and computers become faster and better, they can start doing different jobs in less time than humans. This can be good as it can make life a lot easier. A job that could take hours and may be very exhausting to a human being, computers may do the job faster and wouldn’t get tried at all. Despite this being a big move towards the future, many older people might not be ready for such a change. Many of those may go into unemployment because of IT and computers.

• Changes to jobs

IT and computers will change how we work in most jobs. The IT industry will open up more and different opportunities for people to find work in. Work like checking invoices for example have been made much easier with computers. We can use programs which store this kind of information into one meaning we don’t have to check paper versions of them. This would take longer than using a program. As much as this is a huge positive change, computers can sometimes get corrupted if let's say the power gets cut off. This puts all the data at risk and may cost thousands if not millions of pounds to restore or to get it back up and running.

• Automation and robots in the workplace

Automation and robots in workplaces will get better and better with newer technology in hand. Newer available computer components make big differences in working speeds, this means the production time of a product could multiple. However better and faster components increase in price.

Effect on communities

• High street shopping

A positive effect that computers had on high street shopping is that it allows companies to advise themselves on different social media platforms such as twitter or instagram. Since a lot of people now use social media, companies could get more customers to their products. However as online shopping may be better for customers, it can make stores on streets go out of business and maybe have an impact on the workers.

• Social media groups

Social media groups are good for letting communities expand and give a word to the world  about themselves. A good example of a community would be the LGBT community. Since computers and the internet is a thing, people can support each other when they need help. However toxic people may target them and try to take them down because they disagree with them or they might just want to make fun of them. 

• Local events

Local events have been affected by technology in many ways, one being the way they can organize and advertise themselves. It also lets the locals communicate between themselves using online and plan future events. However the negative that comes with this is that other people may join the groups on social media and abuse the locals on it.

Legal and ethical issues

• Criminal activities

IT and computers have helped the police in many ways. It helps them track criminal activities using technology. It also allows for quick communication between the workers which is very important if someone is in danger. But as the police advance with their technology so do criminals. This makes the fight between criminals and police harder as they both try to get the best tech to do their work.

• Safety online

Online safety has been reinforced more and more as the amount of people who use computers increased. This is good since not many people might be educated enough about the safety when being online. The negative about online safety is that people will try to abuse people who might not be well educated in this and take an advantage of them.

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