Who Needs Computers?

Growing up in the fifties and sixties, I can recall a life that seemed as simple as can be.  I never would have imagined a technology that would bring everything to my fingertips.  Today, everything is merely a click away.

It took me a long time to overcome the obstacle of learning how to use a computer. Around the time that America Online released its software web service suite, AOL, I was too busy raising a family and did not have any time to jump on the new internet/computer bandwagon.  But also, I wasn’t very encouraged to learn about it. Since my family didn’t have the time to sit down and teach me the ropes, I thought it would behoove me to take some classes at Harper Community College. It was there that I spent three semesters taking computer classes, learning how to adjust myself to this new advent of technology. I was a late computer bloomer and it was long after AOL’s walled garden craze that I was getting used to computers. In some ways, I felt discouraged – like there might be too much to learn; as everyone knows, computer technology is an ever changing world. What with Moore’s Law telling me that things are getting smaller and smaller and computers become outdated as fast as you purchase them, why was I even wasting my time? It wasn’t until my oldest daughter, Sherrie, was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma that I started to realize the importance of having a vast amount of information and knowledge at my fingertips. I would stay up, night after night, searching for answers. But during this time, I also realized how unreliable information on the web is.  I had a credible medical website telling me that there’s this chance of her survival in this amount of time and I had a physician in the real telling me to not believe any medical related information on the web. What was I to do? I realized that web users need to make a lot of comparisons of information. I found other websites that supported the physician's stance on medical information on the web. But still, it was relieving to have all of these instant answers, evidence, and solutions to just about anything.

But I really do think that the computer has changed my life for the better. There are many different areas of change in the 20^th century but the one that will be remembered by me is the development of computers and the institution of the internet. Everyday computers play a very important role in our life.  As a student I am very dependent on computers for almost everything I do.  It makes my life much easier in school and I can do things quicker and more efficient.  Using the computer to write is quicker, neater and easy to save and send assignments to my teachers and fellow classmates. 

    

Most offices use computes to keep records and calculate financial data.  Hospitals also keep records of patients in computers. Authors write directly in computers instead of writing papers because this makes the printing process much easier and faster.

     

The other revolution that computer technologies brought to me is the internet, web, and e-mails.  The world is a very large now and people are very close to me because of this technology.  E-mail is probably the most efficient means of communication at the present time.  The only means of communication in the past were letters transported by the postman which sometimes took days and weeks to arrive.  Now with the evolution of e-mails, I can contact people all over the world instantly instead of  waiting.  I can also chat, send and receive messages and even talk via the internet instantly. 

     

Finally, computers and the internet have helped me learn better and faster.  In the past, being a student I only had materials such as text books and the library as resources at my disposal.  Now I can get updated Information and new changes in my subjects almost instantly via the internet by means of e-books and electronic journals.  I use the internet to search virtually anything, I use it for finances, shopping, maps, travel planning, news, music and even watching movies.

     

To conclude, the 20^th century has brought lots of changes to my world but in my

opinion I feel that the computer and the internet is the most significant invention of my time as it has effected my daily life.

     

I would love to hear from any of my fellow classmates as to how the computer age

has marveled their life.