The Computer: A Menace or Blessing to Society?

Even if they are considered easy to use, as they are commonly perceived to be, this belief in itself does cause a number of social problems. Those who do not know how to use computers are often discriminated against. These people are often of the older generation. Youths of today tend to discriminate against them, saying that they are old-fashioned and unknowledgeable. Forget the fact that these older people have gone through many of life’s experiences and learnt so much, if they do not know how to use a computer, they are inadequate and incompetent, and not worth spending time on. This is the attitude of many youngsters towards the older generation today.

Is this really what we want our future generation to be like? One can hardly blame them for this attitude; the environment that they have been brought up in has developed this mindset in them. Whether this is a negligible nuisance that can be ignored or a massive malady that needs to be addressed, I leave it to the reader to decide.

As can be seen, the computer does indeed pose many problems to today’s society. Perhaps it would even be better if the world rid itself of this technology and went back to the basics of life, learning how to enjoy the wonders of life again.

Apropos, before you think that I am a deranged fool who is caught in the Stone Age, I would like to say that I do not deny the benefits of the computer. I do acknowledge that the computer truly serves as a portico to a whole new world of information; I agree that it does give us power beyond our imagination. However, as the saying goes, “with great power comes great responsibility.” Perhaps this responsibility is one that mankind is not ready to bear. Until we learn how to harness this power without neglecting the beautiful kaleidoscope of nature; without losing the joy of life itself, perhaps it indeed would be better if this power was unavailable to us. That being said, our lives have become so intertwined with the computer today that it has become a sine qua non of our existence, and it is seemingly impossible to imagine a life without the computer.

However, this only serves to reiterate our over-reliance on the computer, and based on this, as well as all the aforementioned points, I believe that the computer is indeed more of a menace than a blessing, but perhaps it is a menace that we cannot live without.