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Chapter 1.12 Implications of Computer Use
Chapter 1.12 Implications of Computer Use.
1.12 (a) Changing Trends in Computer Use
Imagine two people who live in a village. The village has a shop and newsagent. The last bank in the village has closed because it was too costly for the bank to maintain the branch which was losing money because so many of the villagers had changed to running their account on the Internet. A person living in this village that has a computer connected to the Internet will be able to pay their bills, order goods from the supermarket 20 miles away at a lower cost than buying them from the village shop and will have a wider variety of choice from the supermarket than they could get locally. They will be able to book rail tickets, at a discount, through the Internet, which will also allow them to pick up holiday bargains.
The second person does not have a computer, so has difficulty with having a bank account, has to use the village shop with much higher prices, and does not have the convenience of ordering on the Internet. If they want to book a holiday there is a 40 mile round trip to find a travel agent in the nearest town. These two people are very different in their life styles and the social changes that have occurred to, not just one of them, because of the computer are immense.
When we add to this the fact that one of these people used to be employed by the bank to run the branch in the village, but is now out of work, while the other has been told to go on a training course to learn a new piece of software, the scale of how much our lives are being effected by the use of new technology becomes even more evident.
1.12 (b) Changes in Leisure and Work
Computer availability and acceptance has brought about large changes, not just in the ways that we live, but also in the way we use our leisure time and in work practices.
Children, particularly boys, spend long hours of their leisure time in front of computer terminals playing computer games. This is a very insular way of passing the time which is beginning to worry educational psychologists because children who behave like this are in danger of not forming the social bonds and learning about the social interaction necessary in later life. Some of the games are particularly violent, or anti social. Although there is no hard evidence of a link between playing such games and anti social behaviour of the child themselves, there is a growing belief that there is such a link. Long hours spent in front of the monitor screen at an early age is suspected to cause the growing amount of RSI and other injuries being suffered by young adults, many years before their parents generation would have shown such symptoms.
Work practices are changing in a number of ways.
· Computers have meant that some repetitive tasks have been taken away from human beings. A robot on a car production line can not only work more consistently than its human counterparts and do the jobs of many people but it does not need paying. Many jobs have been lost to the human work force in this way. However, companies that have invested in this way have tended to become more profitable which has the effect of safeguarding the jobs that are still offered by the company, and also leads to expansion and the creation of additional jobs.
· Additional jobs are created. Every time a robot is placed on a production line, someone has to build the robot, someone has to write the software to control it and someone has to maintain it. The problem is that the majority of jobs created require more skills than the jobs that have been lost. This in turn means a ‘skilling up’ of the workforce. This change in working practices is another example of the technology creating two classes of people (Section 1.12.a), those able to learn additional skills and those not.
· The use of technology allows people whose jobs require a desk and who can communicate satisfactorily with their colleagues without needing to be in the same physical environment to have their desks where ever they want by using electronic means of communicating. This means that people can work from home for at least part of their week. The implications are far reaching. Less pollution because of fewer commuters and pleasant working conditions are both positive factors. Less positive is the ability of the electronic systems to report the working practices of the workers to their boss, and the lack of social contact which is so important in maintaining job satisfaction.
· In the past it would have been quite normal for a person to start a job after leaving full time education and to stay in that job until they retired. Although this may be seen by some as being an uninviting prospect, it does provide for security and gives automatic prestige to even the lowliest of workers because of their seniority within the business bringing invaluable experience. This type of work practice is becoming less and less common as modern technology changes products, manufacturing techniques and the life cycle of businesses.
· Electronic communications have changed the way that business is done. Communication can be immediate, and the worker is never far from being contacted and consequently can be at work at all hours of the day. A good example is the world’s stock markets. Twenty years ago, each country had its own stock market, the performance of which might affect others when they opened, but they tended to be fairly insular in their dealings. Nowadays, the stock markets of the world are all interconnected. As a stock holder it is possible to buy and sell stock at any time of the day or night simply by using one of the markets open at the time, no longer is it necessary to wait for the national market to open the following day.
1.12 (c) Privacy and Confidentiality of Data
The expansion of computer systems around the world has given rise to more information being stored about individuals than ever before. The problem is that to get another copy of a person’s information the only thing that needs to be done is to press a button. Distance is no object either. Using electronic communications it is possible to send a person’s information from one side of the world to another in milliseconds and then to store that information in a system that the owner of the information is unaware of.
There would be no problem if it could be ensured that all the users of the information were going to use it for the right reasons and that the information was always accurate, however these things cannot be guaranteed. Consequently it has become important to protect individuals from misuse of their information by legislation and by measures that restrict both the access to the data and the passing on of the data to other users.
Unfortunately the use of electronic information does not recognise national boundaries and some authorities are not as anxious to uphold the rights of the individual as others. A typical effect of this passing on of personal information is the junk mail that comes through the letter box. An interesting experiment is to change your initials every time you have to give your name. Within a relatively short space of time junk mail will begin to arrive and by reference to the initials it is possible to work out who has sold your details on and to whom they have been sold.
1.12 (d) Legislation
Legislation protecting personal information must not be confused with copyright law. Copyright law protects intellectual property, in the case of a computer system it would protect the person who has written the software rather than the user or the person whose details are being stored. Each country will pass laws that are particular to that country, but they largely follow the same model that is used in Britain.
Any personal data that is stored in a computer system must
· be accurate and up to date.
· be relevant to the task for which it is intended to be used and used for that original purpose.
· not be kept longer than is necessary.
· be kept securely. Access to the data must be strictly controlled.
· be available, on request, to the subject of the stored data.
1.12 (e) Controversial Information
The Internet was originally started by the American military (ARPANET) as a means of communication in time of war. The principle was that if a communications system has a central control system (like a telephone exchange) then it is easy to disable that communications network by destroying the central control. There can be as many telephones as you like, without an exchange they are useless. ARPANET was devised so that there was no central control and consequently the losing of one part of the system does not stop the rest of the system from operating.
This is the whole principle of the Internet, there is no control. When someone complains about the fact that there is a page on the Internet that shows anyone how to make a bomb and says something like, “They should have that page removed.” They are showing their lack of understanding of the net. There simply is no ‘They’, there is no one in charge. A major problem is that individuals find it impossible to agree about what should be available on the net and what should not.
1.12 (f) Health and Safety Implications
The human being is not a sedentary animal. The human body is not designed for long periods of inactivity. The body is designed to move. The legs are designed to move us around, the arms to carry things and support weights, the eyes are designed for 3 dimensional vision. We are not designed to sit for long periods of time, supporting the weight of our own arms while small movements are made by the hands to press keys and our wonderful 3 dimensional sight is used to stare at a flat screen no more than a metre away.
The human body is very resilient, but, as with any misuse of the body the long term use of computer systems in this way will cause damage.
Muscles that are not designed to support relatively small weights (the arms) for long periods of time when using the computer keyboard begin to be strained, particularly when such small movements are made. Joints in the fingers and the elbow and shoulder are made to perform movements that they normally would not do, and to perform them regularly over long time periods. Over time, these strains on the body can lead to pain and to restrictions on movement which are difficult to ignore. A new condition has been identified called repetitive strain injury (RSI). The simple cure for this is to take regular short breaks and to move around and exercise the joints and muscles. Also helpful is the use of a Natural Keyboard which allows the user to sit naturally while working.
Eyes did not evolve to stare at a flat surface that is very close for long periods of time. The eyeball should, naturally, move about in the socket. This produces tears which lubricate the eyeball. Too much enforced staring at one point can lead to a condition called dry eye which can be very painful. The eye can also tire because it is being made to use a fixed focus for long periods. The use of glasses to help the eyes to remain focussed and regularly looking away from the screen can help to alleviate these problems, as can the use of anti glare screens fitted to monitors to cut down the levels of contrast so that the eye can handle it better.
Despite the problems that are associated with the computer itself, the most important problems are less to do with the machines themselves.
Many computer installations are housed in rooms that were not designed for such use. The result is that cables are left trailing and that the furniture used is not always suitable. Many schools provide good (or bad) examples of this, where a new network has been bought with little thought for the classroom that it is going to be squeezed into. Are there enough plug sockets or are too many pieces of electrical equipment going to be run from too few sockets? Can the cabling be put in trunking? Is there adequate ventilation and is the lighting suitable? If the lighting is the ordinary classroom lighting then it will make the screens even more prone to glare. If the chairs are not comfortable then back problems can occur. These can be lessened by using ergonomically designed seating which encourages good posture.
Working with computers can cause stress, particularly among workers who were not originally trained to use them. Historically, once a worker has attained middle age they should be more experienced than the younger people coming in to the firm who will probably be working under them. This situation has changed for many people because of the use of computer technology. Because of the need to keep up to date with the latest hardware and software it is now the young people coming into the firm that are more experienced than those who have been there some time. This can lead to feelings of inferiority and stress on the older workers.
Environmental Issues
Ø A lot of paper is required for printing jobs. Hence, lots of trees are cut down.
Ø A lot of toxic gases are emitted when chips are manufactured.
Ø When computer parts are thrown, this may cause pollution.
Ø If ink cartridges are not disposed off properly, pollution may occur.
Example Questions
1. Discuss the implications for customers of a travel agent closing down their agencies and doing all their business on the Internet. (6)
2. Describe two ways in which a computer system in the home can alter the interaction of the family with the outside world. (4)
3. State two reasons why it is necessary to protect the confidentiality of information stored about people. (2)
4. Describe three measures that would be expected in a country’s data protection legislation. (6)
5. Describe the consequences of allowing upper school pupils to use the Internet to find information for project work. (4)
6. Outline the health problems that may be experienced by telecall operators and state how such problems could be overcome. (6)
7. Describe two ways in which the use of computer systems in business has harmed the environment. (4)
