Limits of Computers in Our Lives

Clearly, the use of personal computers (PCs) has made our daily lives a lot more convenient in areas of research, entertainment, and long-distance communication through social network platforms including emails, Facebook, Twitter, and Histogram just to mention a few. People can access the social media platforms and educational contents using personal computers and other related devices such as mobile phones and tablets. Nevertheless, whether our lives have been enhanced by the existence of these devices, the less technological advancements in some parts of the world in areas of social interaction as well as the inability to learn and use these gadgets raise questions about the effectiveness computers and their applications. The fact of the matter is that PCs have had their benefits and negative effects on equal measures.

To some individuals, it is difficult to imagine how life would be without computers and all other related devices including cell phones, tablets, video games and internet among other advancements.  Even though it is true to some extent that the society is slightly heading towards the wrong direction in terms of technology, the current generation seems to have embraced some of these new devices.  For example, game playing on computers, PS4 and PS3 rather than using bricks, blocks and hard structures has been embraced even though there is a possibility of lowering the imagination and creativity of children. As a matter of fact, children’s imagination process is now characterized by fallacies and computers graphics. If people can embrace and use computers in a balanced and more appropriate way, it can play an important role in our lives. For example, through computers and computer related devices, people can connect with their families across distances. The daily social connections among families eliminate cases of loneness and depression. Similarly, computers and internet encourage the establishment of virtual classes, meaning that distance learning has been made simpler and more effective that before the inventions.

There is no doubt that computers have become the main sources of entertainment in many households today. Societies are unable to recall the importance of playing badminton by use of a real racket rather than the use of computer devices. Moreover, online purchase of commodities has taken away the joy that comes with real-life shopping. Because of computers and advancement in internet services, people’s lifestyles have changed to sedentary ways of living (Hart et al. 76). People have ended up develop serious health complications because they spend most of their time sitting down either watching movies on computers or interacting with friends through social media platforms. Lack of physical activity is one factor that leads to health problems such as obesity in both children and adults.

Limits of PCs Advances and Intervention

The main factors that make it difficult for computer use just like in the case of other technologies can be categorized into economic, ethical and natural limits. These factors can be categorized as either soft or hard limits. In regards to computer as a form of technology, the paper addresses both the soft and hard limits.  Soft limit includes those factors that describe the way human beings think and run their activities. On the contrary, hard limits describe certain conditions that cannot be easily broken to allow adoption and application of a new system. The natural limit consists of systems or processes that can only be completed through the assistance of computer devices such as online learning and communication through social media platforms. It is noted that even the hard limits can be made soft to enhance computer application. Ideally, people’s understanding of the universe is rapidly changing and the only way to satisfy they needs is by engaging in the development of advanced processes and systems that can help them achieve specific goals. Thus, something thought of impassively turns out to be actually possible. Nonetheless, it remains fair to indicate that whatever the truth will be, a natural limit will always be present on what is feasible in the universe. For instance, the law of physics indicates that one is unable to travel swifter than the speed of light. Thus, regardless of what type of system is invented, it is believed that no new invention shall ever be able to undo the computer era. 

Economic limits address the possibility that some processes remain within the reach of computers and other related devices. However, these developments are further expensive that they are fully impractical in terms of implementation. For instance, many contemporary treatment options ranging from stem cell treatment, gene therapies, to complex computer-assisted surgical procedures remain to be some of the most expensive processes. Through online research and regular experiments, it has become possible for professionals in the field of medicine create and access additional drugs and advance medical procedures that might help improve the health of patients. Such developments, however, are never feasible economically because they require appropriate computer operation systems and regular access to network and internet services. Economic limits are sometimes considered to be temporary challenges to some of these new developments. This could be due to the fact that something affordable presently might not be affordable in the future. Nevertheless, these actions remain extremely expensive to be actualized in some parts of the world especially by poor families.

Potential Problems or Issues That PCs Cannot Answer

The use of computers and computer systems has escalated some of the social problems. In areas of research, human application of personal computers has led to many problems such as the creation of supergerms, antibiotics misuse, weapons, and nuclear wastes (Noble 150).  Other advancements the PCs industry such as the development of more sophisticated computer gadgets have raised peoples’ expectations about the kind systems they will be using in the near future. As new computers are introduced, peoples’ tastes and preferences continue to grow even higher (Noble 150). In other words, this are of advancement has completely failed to fulfill peoples’ desires and needs for better computer devices.

Issues Created by the Technology

Overall, connection to personal computers and related devices can trigger psychological problems including narcissism, distraction, depression, and expectation of immediate gratification. Further, computers can affect users’ mental health, and inflicts adverse heath repercussions such as vision challenges and neck strain due to overconcentration. Computers and internet service may also lead to such issues as increased cyber bullying, lack of practical social skills, and isolation.

Non-computer technologies have also created different ethical challenges when it comes to the delivery of social services. Social workers regarded as Parole officers are putting electronic bracelets to their clients in order to monitor their movement in the community. Other social workers may also use electronic technology to help in controlling the behavior of the client. In psychiatric facilities, social workers use the one-way mirror and strategically place cameras to observe patients movements, recreational activities, and therapies (Bendix and Reinhard 86)

How the Technology Change Us

Computer technologies have rapidly changed the way human brains work. This is due to the fact that most sensitive organs in human body are under the threat of computer operation systems. New computer controlled systems are being developed that can be used to enhance human senses or muscle power beyond the usual norm. Currently, there is the establishment of computerized chips that assist patient that are paralyzed to move about by the use of robotic limbs. Through these chips, paralyzed patients now have the ability to respond to changes in both their internal and external environments. In other words, computers can be used to control human behavior and personality (Marmor, Theodore, and Jerry 92).

The most common issues involved in computer systems and other similar devices are privacy and confidentiality. Social workers have developed strict rules designed to guide and protect their relationships with clients. Practitioners now understand how both confidentiality and privacy are essential elements in trusting correlation between clients and social workers. This could be due to the fact that many computerized system used by social works cause different unique threats to client’s confidentiality and privacy (Herndl and Carl 120). In hospitals, for instance, EMR systems have been installed to help secure patient’s health data allow easy access to medical information.

The Human End Machines

Forecasting the future of intelligent machine means a brighter for human beings. It can be shown that humanity can emerge to novel heights with the assistance of most extraordinary creations instead of developing fear over machines. Machines will not replace people as many think but rather will really on intelligent mechanism to assist with human activities. It might be difficult for people to comprehend the idea of machines as means of facing off human generations. Robots with human-like intelligence have been developed to make work easier and not to take the place of people. The fact that these machines do not have life means that they cannot perform some of the roles performed by human beings. Technology developers work in handy to ensure that machines increase human capabilities. Thus, it is apparent that in the future, it will be infeasible to separate humans from machines. The many forms of technology can solely be reached via the liminal transition era. For example, where a cell phone operator leaves the earpiece beyond human leave it out, a constant state of potential limitation exist. The Bluetooth device can demonstrate this example as it permits users to use the cell phone in absence of non-verbal cues (McIntosh et al. 53). The decrease in the liminal condition which denotes the transition between cell phone use and face-to-face communication distinguish the Bluetooth user from the ordinary cell phone user to nearly immediate moment. The lack of liminality catches observers unaware since they do not acknowledge ordinary transition era which features hybridization of human to a technological actor. Thus users of Bluetooth, for instance, experience shorter length between pure “humanities” and pure technology when a call is accepted (McIntosh et al. 53) . When using the cell phone, we can easily acknowledge the action of both states of withdrawing and termination of talking. Where the average user of a cell phone engages with the gadget, an alteration in posture denotes entrance into liminal condition.

Works Cited

Bendix, Reinhard. Nation-building and citizenship: Studies of our changing social order. Routledge, 2017.

Hart, Roderick P., Suzanne M. Daughton, and Rebecca LaVally. Modern rhetorical criticism. Routledge, 2017.

Herndl, Carl G. ”Introduction to the symposium on engaged rhetoric of science, technology, engineering and medicine.“ Poroi 12.2 (2017): 2.

Marmor, Theodore R., and Jerry L. Mashaw, eds. Social security: beyond the Rhetoric of crisis. Princeton University Press, 2017.

McIntosh, Kyle, Ulla Connor, and Esen Gokpinar-Shelton. ”What intercultural rhetoric can bring to EAP/ESP writing studies in an English as a lingua franca world.“ Journal of English for Academic Purposes 29 (2017): 12-20.

Noble, David. Forces of production: A social history of industrial automation. Routledge, 2017.