Course title- Computer Applications in Business Course code- CIT-2202

Assignment on- Computers are both asset and danger to society

Submitted to
Bulbul Ahamed Senior Lecturer Northern University Bangladesh

Prepared by
Towhidul Alam BBA 110103944 Section-B

Date of submission- 04/04/2012

Computers are both asset and a danger to the society The 21st century has been the age of so many technological breakthroughs and advances, technologies aimed for one purpose and that is to make the lives of people better by helping them become more efficient in their work. One such technological breakthrough is computer technology. Computer technology has grown in great proportions starting from a computer with a size that of a room to a small well-designed palm top computer. Computers nowadays have become an indispensable part of the lives of people, especially at work, at companies, businesses, schools, offices and even in homes. It has made the world smaller, but has it made our world better? It would then lead us to ask whether computer technology is good or bad. Firstly Computers as asset for our daily life and it is becoming as important part of our lives as pen and paper were about fifty years ago and that this is because of many benefits we get from using computers. The many advantages of computers include: 1. Online shopping and banking- We can shop and bank from our homes any time of the day and night with the help of Computer and internet. You dont need to go to bank for withdrawing or depositing money. Even you can shop from home whatever you want form any corner of the world. Though online shopping is not very popular in our country but online banking is well known like ATM booth or online login bank account. 2. Easy access to lot of useful information through the Internet- Another big advantage of the Computer is the easy access to information. Online reference books and dictionaries replace the way to the bookshop or to the library. It is again cheaper to search for information in the internet than to buy a book that is old after one year. In the internet a lot of information is renewed and up to date. You can also find information which is very new and a book does not exist yet. Moreover you can read the daily newspapers from all over the world, sometimes for free. You do not have to buy them anymore. In addition, most newspaper sites have an archive in which you can search for old articles. 3. Made lot of computational and clerical work easy: Using computer we can perform complex calculations. There are a lot of softwares that made task more easy and convenient such as Microsoft PowerPoint, word and excel etc.

4. Made it easy for us to communicate and keep in touch with others: - Computer and internet helps to keep touch with friends and relatives thorough social network or websites like Facebook, skype, yahoo messenger and more. Its cheaper than mobile to talk on skype 5. Computer helps in education- Computers became a part of Education. Today many universities and colleges are using Computer technology in class room. Students can learn and collect information from internet. One of the real reasons that almost every college student has a computer in their dorm or in their house is to type up all of those papers that are assigned to them by their professors. Its also help in preparing Assignment, report or presentation. 6. Media of entertainment: computers are not only for calculation or communication its also media of entertainment. We can watch movie, play games, listen to music and a lot of things for entertainment. 7. Handicapped can work from homes: who are unable to work outside by the help of computer technology they can work form home. Its a plus point of computer technology. Even we know that Stephen hawking is paralyzed but still he can continue his research and lecture using computer technology. 8. Store million of important data and files within small place or hard disk: Storing paper documents take a lot of space but storing data in computer takes no physical space. For example if we keep 1 million pages in a room it will take spaces more than if we keep the document is soft version in a hard disk. 9. Its saves cost of paper and pen- We know the greatest benefit of computer is that we can write on millions of pages without costing a single penny. Even you dont need pen. So Computers are helping us to write, edit, print and store documents which dont take any physical place for storing at all. 10. Solve problems faster than an ordinary human being- Computer can perform multitasks at a time which is impossible for human and it can complete task faster than human. 11. Communication throughout the world at a cheap cost- We know communicating over phone is costly and outside national boundary its very complicated. So through internet we can communicate all over the world by sitting on your room. It is now easier to be connected with one another even if you are on the other side of the globe.

On the other side of the coin, computers have opened a whole new world of possibilities. It is now easier to gain information on world events; you can even find a job in the internet; you can spread advocacies to a vast number of people all over the world; and most importantly it is now easier to be connected with one another even if you are on the other side of the globe. Computer technology, just like any other material on earth has been created with a common good in mind. Just like a knife, it has been made to cut and slice food to speed up cooking time for people but it can also be used to kill people, and you cannot ban the use of knives in order to stop killing. And so you can't blame computers for the problems it may have caused for it is the people who use them who caused the problem. It has disadvantages and advantages that must be taken into consideration. Computers as danger to society or its disadvantages However use of computer has some disadvantages also. These include: 1. It causes unemployments- Computer make many complicated job easy and automated as a result companies need less employee for their production or service. For example- once banking was not computerized people went to bank and collect money by providing claques to the banker but today many Banks are providing online banking or ATM system. 2. Threat to Paper and pen industry-we know computer saves the cost of paper and pen which is a threat for the paper and pen industry. So its also causing unemployment and responsible for the termination of those industries. 3. Security problem-Many Company store there valuable information in internet server which is not very secure. 4. Piracy or free download: Internet causes much trouble in the world of professional musicians. In Internet people may find all music online. They don't have to pay for it and they may get every song they want. There are several softwares, like Emule or Kazaa, songs.pk which provide all songs for free. People, who created such softwares claim that they make music really free. But those, who play and sing, and want to earn their living on music, are terrified. They simply get less money. We may establish different laws, forbidding such services, but in my opinion, it is impossible to stop people from using them all.

5. Valuable information can be crashed or hacked- a company or countries valuable information in the internet is not secure enough from being crashed or from the hackers. This is the major disadvantages of Computer technology. 6. Misuse of computer by young generation kids and young use computer for playing games and entertainment rather than learning. The way it distracts and can deviate their thoughts and activities towards unproductive activities. It has become easy to access adult sites that are very much harmful for them. 7. Long time use of computer may cause physical and mental problem- It may affect to the destruction of your eye sight due to radiation. It may cause pimples wrinkles and back pain. It may damage your studies and life. Too much time in front of monitor may adverse effect in your eye sight and can also make you fat. 8. Use social network rather than meet in person-We tend to email, Facebook message, or Skype our friends, relatives or colleagues, rather than meet up in person. This cause unsocial mentality of people.

At last I want to say the problem is not computer technology itself; the problem resides on the people who use it. Computer technology is generally good for it can bring in a lot of good if it is used properly, but can do great harm if used unwisely. Computer technology, just like any other material on earth has been created with a common good in mind. Just like a knife, it has been made to cut and slice food to speed up cooking time for people but it can also be used to kill people, and you cannot ban the use of knives in order to stop killing. And so you can't blame computers for the problems it may have caused for it is the people who use them who caused the problem. It has disadvantages and advantages that must be taken into consideration. People have choices on how they make use of earth's resources, and that choice will determine how certain materials will affect people, be it good or bad.

References

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