by Tim Gray

Created on: September 23, 2008

Computers took our society, and many others the world over, by storm during the late 1980's and 1990's. By the beginning of the millennium, they had virtually become as common a household item as a TV or telephone. Moreover, their popularity and usefulness only continue to grow, and the day is coming when all banking, bill paying and other critical financial elements of everyone's lives will be consummated by way of the personal computer. There is no stopping it. It's useful applications in the lives of all people cannot be overstated, and its ability to help a consumer negotiate his or her way through a plethora of essential functions will only continue to grow by leaps and bounds, as time marches on.

However, with regard to whether or not our society is being controlled by them, I will argue that it is not. Personal and business computers, for that matter, are natural byproducts of technology that is carrying out and fulfilling its own evolutionary course. Just as with so many other human appliances and inventions, the computer is without certainty playing out the role it was intended to assume. Evolutionary technology cannot be changed, altered or redirected down any path other than the one it is meant to take. Computers have become one of the most integrally important segments of the recent manifestation in technological evolution. They are here to stay. Moreover, their place in a technological world will only become more and more firmly entrenched, as time advances. The cost alone has made them so affordable, that only those resistant to technical advancement remain outside the computer consumer loop.

Computers, like all technological advances, have their liabilities. Hackers, authors of viruses and other ill intended techno-intelligent deviants can wreak havoc on the personal information one stores on his or her computer. Exercising a great deal of fastidious discretion is important for the consumer, whom has grown computer dependent. Firewalls, anti-spyware, anti-virus and anti-spam programs go a long way toward keeping the computer literate from being harmed, but the internet is so vast, almost to the point of seeming infinite, that it may be very difficult to keep consumers safe, at all times.

In closing, one needn't feel computers are a threat to society. They are a natural consequence of an industrial revolution that was established many, many years ago. The intention of the industrial revolution was to generate goods and products that complete time consuming human tasks, that otherwise would be large hardships and tremendously burdensome.

Evolution takes many shapes. It certainly has played a critical part in the development of homo sapiens, and there is an equally critically important part evolution has played in the creature comfort devices most people covet greatly. The computer will remain a part of mankind into perpetuity and its place in society will only grow in greater and greater importance across the years ahead.

Learn more about this author, Tim Gray.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.