CIS2 Final Project: Computers and the New Generation
From Scratchpad
Our group will look at how computers will affect the generations to come.
Hi members,
here goes my suggestion for the scope of our topic:
Intro:
How rapid the technological advancement is taking place. E.g. how size of the Internet is doubled, WWW sites are in increasing, how powerful the computers have become, the availability of complicated software applications, etc.
Positive impacts: -Accessibility: Information superhighways makes access to information is available and increasingly rapidly; -Spatiality: Information can be sent and received even faster then you snap your finger; -Overcoming disabilities: Computers largely overcome the handicaps’ problems that are associated with visual, auditory and other disabilities; -
Negative Impacts:
-Lack of accountability: people tend to be unwilling to accept responsibility for an error made by a computerized system.
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We, the entire human race, are seizing greater control over our lives, our minds, our bodies even our genes, thanks to breakthroughs in technogy industry. Yet, what are thenegative effects that come along with this seemingly awesome technogy package?
- by KJ Lee p.s. I'm planning on being responsible for the intro as well as the conclusion plus the first one or two positive impact. Feel free to edit this content.
My email address is
Contents |
[edit] outline
This is the outline proposed by Ewa:
I Introduction
A. Technological progress in the past decade
B. Impact on current society (positives and negatives)
C. How will it affect the generations to come?
II Technology for the next generation
A. What to expect?
B. Who will have access to it?
III Impact on individuals
A. Social disconnect
B. Old values vs. New values
IV Impact on Society
A. A smaller world
B. A smarter world
V Conclusion
If nobody has any disagreement, we will go for this!
Kien: Introduction
Ewa: Impact on Individual
Kelvin:Technology for the next generation
Jiening:Impact on society
Nisha: Conclusion
Raj: Editing/putting final document in MLA format
[edit] introduction
Today's technology is fueling our strong and dynamic society, and is
undoubtedly improving the quality of our lives by providing effectiveness and efficiency, convenience, ubiquity, and leisure. Both social and personal changes are taking place due to the proliferation of technology in our society. Just a decade ago, email was in its infancy, the World Wide Web did not even exist. Computer and networking technology have however mushroomed over the past decade. With the advent of the "Information Highway", computer and Internet crimes have varied from cyber phishing scams to child pornography, bytes of data are getting more prevalent in our lives as technology advances day by day. However, increased reliance on computer technology also presents some new challenges, Such as tradeoffs between computer literacy and physical ability, privacy invasions, and finally, the possibility of human relationship degradation to a level of simply computer communication.
Future cars would be able to self-monitor its own health. The
self-monitoring will be achieved by an intricate sensor system that detects vibration pattern of mechanic systems. For example, car suspension systems have a vibration pattern. Sensors will detect a change of vibration pattern when a bolt becomes loose, and will be able to flag the car owner for repair. The sensors will be able to carry out more tasks such as estimating how long certain mechanical system will remain safe. The technology can also be implemented in other mechanical systems such as tire pressure, balance, and many more. The technology is currently tested on Isuzu Impulse, and researchers estimated that the integration of the technology into a car’s design would be two to three years in the near future. Advancing from the discovery of dogs’ ability to sniff out odors emitted from diseased organs, researchers are developing hi-tech artificial nose that would detect health conditions. The mechanical nose, currently developed as part of SPOT-NOSED project, will dramatically change how doctors diagnose diseases. The sniffing device would use bioelectric sensors, consisting of a layer of proteins, microelectrode, a computer chip, and all of which connect to an instrument that measures electromechanical changes. Researcher estimated that commercial prototype of the sniffing device will be available in five to ten years. Initially it is expected the device to work with body fluids such as urine or blood. Ultimately, the goal is for the device to perform non-evasive diagnose on odors emitted from the human body, which would eliminate drawing blood. The device is expected to diagnose various health conditions such as bacterial infection, melanoma, cancers, and failing organs. The technology can also be applied to detection of explosives and dangerous chemicals.
Good news for students in the future; they no longer need to carry heavy textbooks. Electronic papers allow entire books to fit on a single memory- enabled, polymer sheet, and displayed using reconfigurable magnetically charged pigments. One of the leading developers in e-paper is Lunar Design. It is planning to release a product called “Micromedia Paper¨ in the year 2015. The product will sell in a pack of 10 sheets for about $35. The multi-color product will contain a touch sensitive buttons, a volume dial, and integrated speakers. Using wireless connections, video, pictures, and teleconferencing can also be transferred.
Computers have changed the way we live and the way we behave. Indications of negatively reinforced behaviors include children who have access to computers and the internet become less active, spending a lot of time in their room surfing the net, chatting with friends, or playing games. This behavioral reinforcement has very serious ramifications: First, the child will not find appeal in sports and physical activities. Data shows that computers are becoming a serious factor in the increase of child obesity in the United States, as well as around the world. Secondly, the child becomes alienated from the “real” world and cyberspace turns into his or her reality. This seclusion of the real world has show to cause serious behavioral and social problems, such as, social awkwardness, low self-esteem, and fear of intimacy (Shields). Finally, this isolation from the world is also isolation from the family environment. In fact, kids are now locking themselves in their room and do not communicate with their parents or siblings anymore. This lack of communication deepens the notion of dysfunctional families, which often leads to detrimental effects for society at large, since the institution of family is so integrated in positive child development. Additionally, parents are increasingly losing control over their kids' activity. As a parent, you cannot control your kids’ correspondence with their friends, especially with Instant Messaging and chat rooms. But communication does not stop at friends; in fact, chat rooms and websites such as myspace.com and craigslist.com put them at risk of dealing with sex predators, drug dealers, and other scary individuals. All of these transformations in child behavior will alter the way the next generation looks at the real world, ending in a generational discordance between this one and the prior.
A generational gap has been a serious sociological issue over the course of human
history; Parents fail to understand children in the context of their own personal experience, and children cannot convey their position in a manner that would accommodate a parental perspective. Could the internet be widening this inter-generational gap? It is commonly understood and accepted that significant influence over the development of moral standards and value judgments. However, these transformations are not necessarily all negative and it is important to look at the positive effects this influx of technology can potentially bring to generations to come. In fact, the internet has made the world a smaller place where information is available at our fingertips. This global technology allows learning from other culture, corresponding with people from different walks of life and cultural background (Jorgensen). The new generation may have access to the rest of the world at an early age when they are making up their view of the world. If kids learn to appreciate other cultures and peoples at an early age, they will most likely develop to be more tolerant and receptive to different customs and traditions. In our society, there are still too many people who believe their world is the norm and have trouble accepting other cultures. Depending on how the new generation will take advantage of this technology, the outcome will influence the transition in our society’s values. The invention of the Internet not only makes us have more access to the information, but it makes the communication between us more convenient as well. Before the birth of the Internet, the chief traditional communication methods were letter and telephone. The creation of letter can date back to a long time ago, and it is still widely used every day. Its greatest weakness is slowness: in communication between the people in two different countries, it normally takes several days to receive a letter. Telephone is a very common device for communication, but the long-distance all is still pretty expensive and we can’t see each other during phone conversation. With the advent of the Internet, email and instant messaging have broken the domination of letter and telephone. Nowadays, email has been widely used in the world, especially among the young generation. Email has numerous advantages a letter doesn’t possess. First, most emails are free while we have to pay for the stamp for mailing a letter. Email is much faster than letter, which adapts to the fast pace of our social life. The information conveyed via the Internet is accurate and easy to read which is especially reflected in sending a picture. I have a sister in Singapore who often sends us their new pictures by email so that we can immediately see them after she has sent. I believe that with the email becoming more and more popular, it will replace traditional letter in the near future. When it comes to instant messaging, it was first launched as a software device called ICQ (I seek you). After that, many big companies unveiled their own IM tools among which msn messenger, yahoo messenger and AOL are big names. IM is a great improvement of email, which lets people chat over the Internet instantly. In this environment, people can send files to each other and play interesting online games. With the aid of a webcam, two good friends will be excited to see each other on the web after parting for a long time. This is probably the very moment that we really feel that the world is actually so small.
The Internet has also enabled more individuals and businesses to participate in the economy, regardless of their location. Big companies can move some of their business overseas, employing Chinese or Indian engineers in an effort to reduce their overhead. Although it is always a controversial issue because some argue that it actually cut the job opportunities domestically, it is a real benefit to the companies themselves. Using new technology, the headquarters of a big company can assemble the heads its branches around the globe to have a teleconference so that they don’t need to come to the headquarters. The computers make the world a better place because the world has become smarter due
to the existence of computers which have been applied to all aspects of our work and life. With the Internet becoming more and more popular, E-commerce has been a trendy world in society. It is utilized not only in big enterprises but in individuals as well. Enterprises use computer networks, primarily the Internet, to buy and sell products and services, and to exchange information. The result of E-commerce is a great range of fast, low-cost electronic services. It not only increases enterprises’ sales volume but also reduce their cost thus greatly improving their profit. According to Forrester Research (as cited in Kessler, 2003), electronic commerce generated sales worth US $12.2 billion in 2003.Nowadays, e-commerce concept has also penetrated into every corner of our life, for example, online banking, online stock transaction, online registration etc. We can do almost everything by just click the mouse without leaving home. Because of E-commerce, such websites as ebay.com and amazon.com have become common names among people and their business boom year after year. Some argue that e-commerce may be insecure due to the characteristics of the Internet and is easy to become a target of hackers. However, as a whole, the benefits it brings about are greater than the harms it can cause.
Looking inside our wallet or purse, we can find that besides small amounts of bills or coins, it is most filled with all kinds of cards such as credit card, debit card, drive license, student ID card, library card etc. Although these cards are very small, they are a typical example that new technology is widely used in our daily life. They have made our life more convenient. Because of credit cards or debit cards, we no longer need to carry large amount of cash to the store to buy expensive items. They effectively avoid cash loss due to our negligence or cash theft. If we lose cards, we almost lose nothing as long as we claim their loss in time to our institution. The governmental entities can use the driver’s license or green card to identify us in case of need, which greatly enhance their efficiency. We can imagine how laborious their work would be without these cards due to the steady increase of our population.
[edit] summary / conclusion
To sum up, computer technology truly changes our lives and creates some advantages and disadvantages to us as well. It is clearly that the impact of technology brings us will only be greater and greater since computers play an increasingly critical role of our society. Thus, we have to take both the good and bad of technology brings to us. We are living under a situation that we have never experienced before, it takes time and effort to make a transition from a traditional to a highly technology inspired society due to the social and personal changes. Changes are not easy for everybody, but this is the only way to go. It is early to say that technology advancement will give us a better or worse live, but we have to make effort to use technology wisely and help making a better future for our children. We want to enjoy the convenience that technology provides us, but at the same time, protecting the natural environment is also an important task for any of us.
[edit] references in MLA format
Baase, Sara. A Gift of Fire. New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc, 2003 Heizer, Jay, and Barry Render. Operations Management. New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc, 2005 “Electronic Commerce.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 21 June, 2006. Shields, Margie. “Children and Computer Technology: Analysis and Recommendations”. The Future of Children Princeton-Brookings. 2000. 22 June 2006 <http://www.futureofchildren.org/pubs-info2825/pubs-info_show.htm?doc_id=69787 Jorgensen, Erik. “Internet Generation Gap”. iSafe-America 2004. 22 June 2006 http://www.isafe.org/imgs/pdf/articles/internet_generation_gap-2_0504.pdf Technology Review: Emerging Technologies and Their Impacts. 2006. June 16 2006 < http://www.technologyreview.com/
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20051128/selfcar_tec_02.html
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20060612/patientsniffer_hea.html
http://www.forbes.com/2005/10/20/cx_gd_1024featslide_comm05_3.html?thisSpeed=60
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