Last week I was asked to write an essay about the role of technologies in our lives, firstly about computers and their spread in all possible spheres of social life. Not long before that I had spent few days in agonizing doubts whether to start my own blog or not. The result is evident now.
It was not an easy decision though it can sound funny and childish. It was a difficult choice because, when I agreed with myself on the need to share my thoughts as well as feelings with my computer screen and, if go further, with absolutely unknown people who can by chance come around my nonsense while surfing the Internet, it meant that I admit my loneliness and inability to find good interlocutor in real life. Sad but a fact.
So, I was not indifferent to the topic and got the highest mark on my emotional but still logical and rich in content essay. Take a look.
Speaking about computers we all have to admit that we have already accepted the fact that nothing we do on our computer is ever completely private. This is the price we pay for the convenience of ability to do everything online sitting on our sofas. The question that we have to ask ourselves now is whether convenience worth the loss of privacy as all our personal data from bank records to health information and employment history is on file and more readily available every day? Everyone will answer for himself and I'm just going to compare pro and contras of using computers.
First, I'd like to divide our life into three main spheres: work, studying and free time. None of them we can imagine without computers.
Imagine walking into your office at work. Your computer will recognize your voice and automatically log you on. You will be able to walk up to your ATM, smile sweetly and say "hello" and it will give you your money. Isn't it a pleasure?! Of course, computers do go wrong every now and then, and I suppose we do spend a lot of time fixing problems, but I can't but admit that most of the time they make life a lot easier. Another example. One not huge machine can make the job of a doctor's receptionist (I know because I heard all imaginable enthusiastic speeches from my close friend on that job!) much easier because all the patients' files will be stored on computer and an employee won't have to deal with piles of paper any more. On top of that there will be no need in having so many filing cabinets taking up all the space because all the files will be on disk. Yes, someone will have to type in all the information and, yes, it will take him a long time to learn how to use PC properly and get through it all. But what is in the end? When you are done everything will be organized and you will be able to find everything very easily. Isn't it worthy your efforts??
Let's go further. I'm a student. I hope I can consider myself like a not bad student and here I must confess that in many aspects it is a service of my PC. Really, people shouldn't get angry with their kids for spending much time in Internet cafes. On the contrary, I'm sure they should use computers as much as possible because they need their computer skills if they want to get jobs when they leave school. The best evidence for this is that there are computer science lessons at my department! Parents are right without any doubt when they say that computers may not be very good for our eyesight but don't forget about their use in getting good marks also!
And finally the most controversial sphere - our free time. You are on holidays, OK? Having computer in your car, you can use it while driving to keep up with all the travel news or to find maps of whatever area you want. Great advantage in my opinion! Moreover, after your holidays, you will for sure make friends with a lot of people from all over the world. I'll never believe that you will not! And, of course, you won't want to lose these contacts, but how can we keep in touch without any serious damage to our budget ( now I mean extremely expensive phone calls to far corners of our planet)? And again computers together with social networks, Facebook, for instance, come to help us. Another question is how not to forget living in real life. It depends only on yourself, don't blame machines.
So, you can like it or not, but if you are not familiar with computers, you won't have a future. It's as simple as that!
It was me 18-year-old. It was me who is permanent PC-user and since now - blogger. It was an essay for my teacher to be liked and given good mark. Now it's almost 1 o'clock in the night and I transform into a wise 60-year-old woman, experienced and knowing the absolute truth...
The use of computers in the sphere of education is, without any doubt, a more controversial topic that I showed it earlier, especially when we mean schools (not universities or other institutes of higher education - colleges and so on), but schools where our children learn how to find themselves in the social surroundings at the age of their best learning abilities! So I have reversed my thoughts and now feel negative to all these innovations, though, like an educated person, I can admit some benefits of them.
What are two main diseases of all pupils? First, it's the lack of time because of business at school and second one is a source for the first problem - a lot of studying material should be learnt but at the beginning it should be found, borrowed from the place it is situated, analyzed and only after all this it can be learnt. But, of course, nowadays, it sounds like an utopian idea. Why? Because our so-called "friends" computers solve those problems very easily allowing our brains have permanent rest while machines are doing all the work instead of us. Take a look. Formerly, a pupil used to go to the library if only he had need in preparing for a lesson, or in writing any kind of report. He used to discuss the topic of the report with a librarian improving his communication and at the same time oratorical skills. Then it was quite natural to spend hours in the reading hall, analyzing piles of papers and books to choose only suitable and topical information. As a result, the only thing left to do at home for the pupil is to read everything once again in the right logical order and imagine the way he will speak on the subject in class. Problems I have spoken about are evident - where could we find time for all our subjects because we had not two or three of them at school, but dozen?! And how could we get access to all necessary material if libraries couldn't copy books for all people concerned?! Here we see the advantages computers have brought into our studying.
And why do we always forget to take into consideration comfort of our teachers who did spend all nights long checking our tests or preparing for the lesson by all possible means - drawing, cutting something from papers, recording video and audios - only to make studying hours interesting and captivating for children? Computer technologies can fascinate every student without any exception by numerous various educational programs they have. So, how could I manage to find any disadvantages of these extremely helpful instruments for learning?
Let's investigate the other side of the question. While gaining mentioned conveniences, our children lose more important skills such as personal communication. (I have just lost it since I began to write this blog...) For instance, people who spend long hours in front of a computer no longer know how to talk to other people, and may even feel uncomfortable in the company of others. Please, understand all the tragedy when a growing child prefer to spend his time in the company of a machine to the human's presence! Moreover, the word "convenience" is very dangerous if small child see only salvation for him in it. Every convenience begins to simplify one sphere of our life and we are slowly losing our natural mental skills we used to take advantage of in it formerly.
As for me NOW, it's pretty enough for children their computer science lessons at school to improve their computer skills in order to get job in the future. But all subjects using computers...Don't you want to see new great writers in our children?..new outstanding scientists with not ordinary thinking?..new widely-known paintists?.. We don't want. Realize that it's becoming impossible with the loss of creativity due to the use of cleverer than we are machines.
