The debate about the most significant creation within the last 100 years of human history is not straightforward because different people base their augments on various criteria leading to oppositions about the topic.
To address this debate, this analytical essay will try to persuade a mixed audience in terms of gender and age. The audience will be composed of male and female college students aged 16 to 21 years.
The argument supporting the topic will focus on a thesis articulating that computer technology is the utmost invention influencing the youth. The essay will, in addition, highlight how computers influence younger generations constructively and unconstructively.
The positive influences of computer technology on younger generations are immeasurable despite its obvious negativity. The main purpose of inventing computers was to help humans solve compound arithmetic problems.
The outcomes of the invention may be comprehended in terms of VIP communication, space exploration, the Internet, email and the web, television broadcast, movie production and almost every aspect of human living.
Following the invention and launch of personal computers, every aspect of younger generations living has been affected. The youth utilize computers in all aspects of their living such as writing assignments, doing research, communicating, listening to music, viewing movies, and traveling.
Actually, the younger generations encountered their first computer before the birth through ultra sound scanning during the pregnancy scan.
Education
Computer technology is the foundation of contemporary education systems across the world. Nowadays, students must possess computers skills because lecturers use computer technologies such as screen projectors and online classes to teach.
Furthermore, writing assignments entails the use of personal computers and so does the submission of assignments for awarding grades (Jacko and Sears 414).
Work
In the most developed nations, students look for summer and part time employment opportunities using computer technology. In fact, modern day employers and recruiting agents require job applicants to submit their credentials electronically. Electronic submission is attainable by means of using computer technology.
With the introduction and growth of computer technology, contemporary places of work have experienced remarkable changes. Most students are hopefulness that they will find job opportunities after graduating from colleges or other tertiary institutions.
Computer technology, such as mobile telephone communication, video conferencing, and virtual workrooms, have created an interconnected world where workers do not leave their places of residence to go to their work (Jacko and Sears 416).
Students should appreciate the vast opportunities the computer technology presents the students with. Many students are embracing computer technology in finding work to pay for school, housing, and food (Jacko and Sears 415). In view of this, computer technology has made freelance work possible.
Moreover, students who find summer season jobs in organizations, such as MacDonald’s, Starbucks, Wal-Mart and other companies offering temporally work to students need computer technology to communicate with customers and senior managers.
Students, who do not have computer skills, are likely to struggle hard to find work.
Communications
Currently, almost every student has a cell phone, email address, or asocial media account. These communication tools are based on computer technology, and are the foundation of younger generations’ living. The youth spend more time using computer technology than they do using non-computer technology.
Computer technology has eased the harnessing of the Internet, which forms the basis of modern communication. Today, younger generations use the Internet to connect, work, and socialize with each other (Girard and Girard 265). Newspaper readership has reduced because of computer technology.
In contrast to older generations, younger generations read newspapers less because the latter prefers to read news items using computer technologies, such as PDAs, Smart Phones, and Tablets (OECD 44).
Research has confirmed that younger generations continue to spend more time using mobile phones for texting or sending SMS (Wilska 441). Mobile phones base their functionalities on computer technologies such as Java and Android programs.
Computer technology continues to influence younger generation communication aspects through television broadcasting and motion pictures viewership.
The scale of the information disseminated through television transmission, movies screening and the Internet could help comprehend the influence of computer technology on human communications.
Younger generations use these media source to obtain information, therefore, these generations are the most influenced by the technology. Computers have enabled continuous transmission of information across the globe (Castells, Fernandez-Ardevol and Qiu 161).
While computer technology has presented huge benefits to the youth, it has its detriments. The major downside of computer technology is over dependence, which affects social development.
A substantial number of young people in colleges and high schools are addicted to computer technologies, such as computer games, Internet pornography, and social media.
The young face the challenge of developing poor social skills as some prefer to spend their leisure time playing computer games and chatting on social media instead of interacting with people physically (Kirsh 377).
Computer technologies are criticized for making people indolent and reducing their intellect. A study done in Britain established that over 50% of children aged less than 12 years could not read time on an analog watch, but could comfortably identify time on a digital watch (Womack 1).
Digital watch uses computer technology to display time. What is more, obesity is another factor most prevalent in countries with high penetration levels or use of computer technology.
So, inactive lifestyles such as watching television, and playing computer games could be linked to computer technology. These two aspects of computer technology mostly influence young generations.
Computer technology is detrimental to the lives of younger generations because it fails. Since these generations over depend on computer technology, a small malfunction could lead to late tendering of assignments, loss of work and money, and increase in stress levels among other negative effects.
For instance, a faculty may schedule an online examination at 14:00, but computer problems such as low Internet connectivity, malware or virus infection or a computer failing to boot (Andrews 245), could mean rescheduling of the examination for another time or in another location. Such inconveniences lead to loss of time and resources.
Conclusion
The very nature of modernity signifies that computer technology is the most significant invention to happen within the last 100 years of human history. Computer technology influences younger generations more than it does older generations.
Computer technology has been with man for roughly 50 years, but its influence on aspects of modern societies is immeasurable. Computer technology is found everywhere from modern banks, shopping outlets, educational institutions to workplaces.
Computer technology remains the influential and vital invention of the twentieth century. However, this technology is still nascent in its capabilities despite being 50 years old. Soon, computer technology will overtake other inventions and profoundly influence more human society living aspects than it does today.
Works Cited
Andrews, Jean. A+ guide to hardware: managing, maintaining and troubleshooting. Boston, MA: Course Technology, 2010. Print.
Castells, Manuel, et al. Mobile communication and society: a global perspective. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 2007. Print.
Girard, John P and JoAnn L Girard. Social knowledge: using social media to know what you know. Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference, 2011. Print.
Jacko, Julie A. and Andrew Sears. The human-computer interaction handbook: fundamentals, evolving technologies, and emerging applications. New York: Routledge, 2003. Print.
Kirsh, Steven J. “The effects of violent videogames on adolescents: The overlooked influence of development.” Aggression and Violent Behavior 8.4 (2003): 377-389.
OECD. News in the Internet age: new trends in news publishing. Paris: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2010. Print.
Wilska, Terhi-Anna. “Mobile Phone Use as Part of Young People’s Consumption Styles.” Journal of Consumer Policy 26.4 (2003): 441-463.
Womack, Sarah. “Young children cannot tell time on old clocks.” The Telegraph 17 September 2002: 1.