Computers and I
Computers are linked to almost every aspect of life. I was shown computer technology back in my early grade school years. Teachers would shuffle a pack of twenty kids at a time into a confined room filled with the new computer technology. The only thing I remember using computers for all through elementary school was to play Oregon Trail, which was like an un-evolved Nintendo game. I didn’t understand why all the adults guarded and respected the computers as if precious materials when all I used them for was to play games. Little did I know that the computer would create an unavoidable effect on my life.
As I grew older and wiser I began to understand the practical use of the computer technology. I began typing my reports instead of trying to write them really really neat in pen. The typing and printing technology turned out to work really well for school related purposes; it was much easier and quicker than writing in pen. Computers weren’t foolproof though and I figured that out in high school when I accidentally erased one of my lengthy reports. Luckily I had decided to write my first draft the old fashioned way: with a pencil. Despite the forethought typing a whole report over again was still time consuming and aggravating. There was no way around re-typing my report either; as computers became increasingly available teachers demanded typed papers. Computers had already made changes in the way I spent my time. An aspect of computer technology that I found most amazing was the Internet. In college I began to utilize the Internet for purposes of self-education. The Internet has helped me gather much reference material for my artwork as well as opening me up to the whole world of contemporary art that existed on the Internet. I was exposed to a countless number of artists of whose work I would have never been able to see without the use of Internet. Now when I have a general guestion about a subject I simply look it up on the Internet. I began to realize that the Internet opened up a new world for everyone with access to it. Eventually everyone was using computers and the Internet on a regular basis.
The ethics behind using animals for experiments and tests has been questioned and debated for years. Many people believe that animal experimentations can be crucial towards medical breakthroughs such as the cure for cancer, HIV/AIDS or asthma. Meanwhile others argue that animals that are used to test cosmetics such as make-up and perfumes are inhuman because is not going to help improve the human race. Animals suffer through multiple types of torture such as being forced to ingest poisonous chemicals, blinded, burned, stapled, and infected with disease viruses. Even though animal experimentation may be considered inhumane to many, animal experimentation is crucial to advancements in medical research and can lead to a better quality of life; on the other hand, animal experimentation should not be used to develop cosmetics because such experimentation is cruel and unnecessary.
In the past 100 years, the world has completely turned around. The technological and computer revolutions have completely changed the way the world works. Henry Ford revolutionized factorial production through the creation of the assembly line. It increased efficiency and a basic standard of conformity among products, therefore making the company a lot more successful. The rest of the industry creating a nation-wide revolution based on efficiency adopted this new innovation. Following the innovation of the assembly line, a new era of development came into existence. In the 1970’s, computers were first introduced. Although they were as large as a room and could only play tic tac toe, they were the start of the technological revolution that made our society what it is today. Hundreds, if not thousands, of new inventions were thought of each year, creating new jobs and a new way of life. Records and files previously kept in file cabinets are now all computerized. Every person’s life is computerized: identification, police reports, one’s house and work. Almost every person has a computer, whether it is used for fun, school, Internet connection, graphic arts, or music. Computers have revolutionized our lives, whether that is a good or bad thing is the question. Do we create and control the computers, or have our own inventions taken such a hold on our lives, that they now control us? Aldous Huxley uses Henry Ford as the basis for an omni powerful leader who enforces the new values of efficiency through a totalitarian and mind-controlling government; subsequently, Huxley creates Brave New World to warn us of the effect that technology will have on our lives in the future.
The internet has made gaining online material more accessible with fast and instant possibilities. “With a few clicks, people can search virtual catalogs, place orders, track shipments, and update information in corporate databases.” (Carr 85). With technology advancing and where it is right now it is so easy to order things that are needed the next day and have them at your doorstep. You can easily change any information in an instant as well. “The net has become essential to their work, school or social lives, and often all three.”(Carr 9). Without the internet education would not be near as advanced as it is now, jobs would be made more difficult, with having to rely on written thoughts and
This newspaper article talks about how schools today are neglecting computers and what happens to children when they are not exposed to computers and technology.
Nearly every member of the human race learns a language or more to the degree of proficiency only in the first few years of life. How children achieve this astonishing skill in such little time sparks controversial debates among linguists, psychologists, and scientists throughout centuries. Some believe that language is an innate ability possessed by all human beings due to the remarkable function of the brain while others maintain that language is learned from childhood experience. However, many are beginning to realize that nature and nurture go hand-in-hand when explaining how children develop their language(s). Despite the claims that language is either pre-learned or environmentally learned alone, the combination of both genes
...s life. Lastly, the internet revolutionized the world such a manner that scholarly articles, videos and other posts containing information could be accessed immediately. The internet has allowed millions of writers to thrive and billions of people to read their works. Changes in nutrition over the last century have revolutionized lifestyles allowing writers to have an infinite amount of possible topics and methods of discussion.
I was first introduced to computers in the early 1980’s and have witnessed first hand the advancements we as a culture have made over the past twenty years. I have gone from the green screen that we learned create a program that would make our name repeat itself on the screen, to creating a full functioning web page. The computer games have come a long way as well. There were two games on our school computers when I first started, “Lemonade stand” and “Lawnmower”. These were very basic games that were very badly animated if you could chose to call it animation. These games didn’t have a hand controller since the “Joy stick” wasn’t invented yet. The games of today look as though a movie crew has filmed them. The first word processing programs had to be loaded by disk each time you wanted to use them and were quite expensive. Today the programs are already loaded and stored in the computer and the expense is very minimal. Our word processing programs can check for spelling and punctuation errors as well as grammar mistakes. For those who have grown up with this option it may not seem like a big deal but for those of us that learned to type on a typewriter that wasn’t even electric these advances are enormous.
From classroom activities to space flight and everything in between, computers are a vital part of daily life. Everything we do and every aspect of our life is affected by modern technology like the computers. Computers let us dissect any sort of data. Computers makes us reflect, hence we develop. Because of computers and the Internet, we can talk with individuals from diverse nations, and even see them via webcam. Computers have their weaknesses like they have a negative effect on individuals' health. One of the risky parts of any machine is the screen. Computers make individuals dependent. Computers are hampering individuals' improvement in regular life. We don't read printed books any longer, since we can listen and read on the web. We invest more of a chance talking online than talking face to face. Overuse of machines has numerous negative impacts, for example, creating physical/behavioral sicknesses, harming family connections and diminishing scholarly study.
I was born in the 80’s, so technology as, I know it, was beginning to take aim at the mainstream United States and the world. I grew up in an era of change, whether or not this change is good is yet to be determined. When I talk about technology I am making reference to computers, automation, and most “new age” technology. My first exposure to computers was at my dad’s lab at the University of Michigan Dearborn. The computer was ancient by today’s standards, but at the time it was a marvel of technological triumph. When I was five we bought a home personal computer (pc) for my mother to write papers and utilize the Internet. I became increasingly fascinated with the possibilities the computer brought be and I was hooked. In school we had little Apple 2Es that only worked when they wanted to but we still used them every day.
Still today, it is the commonly held belief that children acquire their mother tongue through imitation of the parents, caregivers or the people in their environment. Linguists too had the same conviction until 1957, when a then relatively unknown man, A. Noam Chomsky, propounded his theory that the capacity to acquire language is in fact innate. This revolutionized the study of language acquisition, and after a brief period of controversy upon the publication of his book, Aspects of the Theory of Syntax, in 1964, his theories are now generally accepted as largely true. As a consequence, he was responsible for the emergence of a new field during the 1960s, Developmental Psycholinguistics, which deals with children’s first language acquisition. He was not the first to question our hitherto mute acceptance of a debatable concept – long before, Plato wondered how children could possibly acquire so complex a skill as language with so little experience of life. Experiments have clearly identified an ability to discern syntactical nuances in very young infants, although they are still at the pre-linguistic stage. Children of three, however, are able to manipulate very complicated syntactical sentences, although they are unable to tie their own shoelaces, for example. Indeed, language is not a skill such as many others, like learning to drive or perform mathematical operations – it cannot be taught as such in these early stages. Rather, it is the acquisition of language which fascinates linguists today, and how it is possible. Noam Chomsky turned the world’s eyes to this enigmatic question at a time when it was assumed to have a deceptively simple explanation.
First of all, the computer’s role in society has increased significantly throughout recent years. In the past, a computer was mostly used for minor tasks, such as typing a paper or playing a game for leisure. A child could rarely be found sitting in front of a monitor screen, and they usually didn’t even know how to operate the machine. Software games were on the market, but were not very popular for purchase. Usually the more developed households and higher-class families were the ones that contained a computer at home, but mostly adults were found to be the users. Many families found it easy to do without one, as they were mostly used for typing, and typewriters or handwriting took their place. In the past, computers went without the Internet, were extremely slow, and weren’t capable of much of anything.
A computer is a wonderful tool that can help us with many things. The question is why are computers more than a curse than a blessing? Many children this generation have advanced in computers and technology more than their elders, and the ones above them. The internet is wonderful when researching for homework, but it is not good when it is becoming a bad habit and going on it. Computers have many effects on people and the youth. It can lead to less physical activity for many children and teenagers. Many times computers are being abused for all the wrong reasons. One thing that it affects the most is your vision and can lead to glaucoma a type of eye disease. Many of us are not aware of all the health issues that are caused by computers.
The statement, which says, “depending on computer” has been a controversial issue since it was invented. Some people believe that computer has unpleasant effects on people’s lives, such as destroying social communication, affecting people’s health, and limiting their creativity. On other hand, some people think that computer has presented a lot of benefits on people’s lives. For instance, it has developed education, increased knowledge about the universe, and reduced time working. In my opinion, I believe strongly that a positive side has a right presenting because computer has provided a lot of benefits on our life such as enhancing many ways to develop education, contributing to discover and determine different planets, and making life easier.
... computers are a great invention if used with discretion. I use a computer almost every single day to aid me with homework, chat with friends, or even entertain myself by watching a movie or playing a game. I find computers to be a stress-reliever, a ‘gateway to another world’ where one can be whoever they want if they find that they’ve had a bad day at school or work. While I support this positive attitude towards computers everyday, I find, in myself even, that I’ve become slightly addicted, causing me to not get as much sleep as needed or allowing me to do my homework without distraction. Overall, however, I’ve found computers have made me more knowledgeable, even if not pertaining specifically to school and that they’ve prepared me for a future where computer use will be inevitable.