Social Implications of Computing

As i was searching through website about “social implication of computing”. I found this quotes from this website really interesting. And it’s “the most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday until they are indistinguishable from it” (http://www.slideshare.net/guest3bd2a12/the-social-implications-of-computing-presentation)

And here’s the five examples it provides, E-mail, instant messaging, the web, cellular phones and video games. All the technologies are used because they are thought to be beneficial to human lives. However, it makes people’s lives easier one way but on the other hand, it became a gap between one person and another.

The topic discussed on this is virtual vs. ‘real’, the appearance of online courses, email and research engines let people find and learn really fast and easy. They don’t have to go to school or library spending hours to find their paper sources. However, this also eliminate contact among people. Class discussion, coffee with friend and book by an expert all seems unnecessary.

Personally, i really have this concern because i start to spend more and more time on the computer than have parties or go out with friends. In a family dinner, people will always get their phones out and start sending messages or reading books or playing games rather than talk about their lives and what they are going to do. I feel like this is a negative side of high technologies. It helps people but also hurts people. As a computer scientist, i always want to be able to design things to help people make a better life. i believe people can and will be able to still stay contact with one another and not isolate them by putting themselves in front of computer. People are social animals and they need to be in a group to not feel lonely.

Cybercrime, in another word, computer crime, refers to any crime that involves a computer and a network (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_crime) . One example will be attacking other people’s computer by spreading viruses and stealing their personal informations such as credit card account.

Before i got in to field of computer science, i always hated people who made viruses. Every time i got a virus, some of my files or pictures will be damaged and never recovered. Or in some extreme case, i have to reinstall everything in my computer to get rid of the viruses. I am strongly against people who make viruses and use computer as their weapons for their own benefits. Computer is a tool to make this world a better place not a worse place.

My mom always have a concern for me to enter into computer science, and that is i will be isolated from others and have to spend a long time with computers. I used to say that’s what i like to do. I am not very social person but i have my friends and social groups that i go to every once in a while. In this moment, i can’t tell if there’s anything really bad about not able to have a social life like other majors and spend a long time in programming.

And last thing i will talk about is government’s regulation on what is shown on the web. i strongly believe they have no right to control any speech no matter what the subjects are. First Amendment granted people right to speech. Today, the freedom to speech means freedom to express through network and it should not be regulated by the government. Although there are different cases that regulating may be a necessary step, the use of monitoring and suppression are not really the best way to solve these problems. people should have the right to see what they want to see and express what they want to express.