Describe three ways that computers have made the world safer and less safe.
The invention of computers to society has been a double-edged sword as to the positive and negative impacts on society. Below are three ways computers have made the world safer and made the world more dangerous.
The three ways computers have made the world safer are:
- Crime prevention.
- Most of the police departments today have their cruisers (cars), possess cameras and wear body cameras. These are needed to better record the interactions with police and possible suspects. This is a positive use of technology as by utilizing these devices, the police are now held more accountable for their actions, especially if there is an altercation that requires the police to discharge a firearm.
- Homes are better protected against thievery because of affordable security systems. These are easily set up through Wi-Fi and the recordings are usually kept in a cloud environment for safe keeping.
- Traffic cameras that are installed at dangerous traffic intersections or even the highways make traffic safer by constantly watching and reporting if a vehicle is driving outside of the traffic laws.
- Communications. In the old days, to correspond with another human being, you put pen to paper and send this through a delivery service like the United States Post Office. This could take days, weeks, or even months depending on where it went, and it can be expensive depending on how many pen pals you prefer. With computers, you can communicate with anyone in real time by simply hooking up to free public Wi-Fi and typing out your message on your preferred text message app. Or you can communicate with a computer for free at your local US library to send and receive electronic mail.
- Cars. Cars today are smarter than they were in the past, which makes them safer. Cars today have forward and rear facing cameras to help you park, can parallel park themselves, knows if another vehicle is in a blind spot so that you do not have an accident, and they are even starting to drive themselves which would hopefully eliminate drunk driving accidents.
The three ways computers have made the world less safe are:
- Addictions. The invention of computers has made it easier for humans to satisfy a myriad of addictions.
- Gambling in the United States was illegal except if you went to certain locations like Las Vegas, Nevada or Atlantic City, New Jersey. Today, computers have made it simple and easy to gamble using your home computer.
- Pornography is another addiction that some humans feel the need to satisfy. According to www.statista.com, approximately 4% of the internet is pornography related. And this does not seem like much; however, pornographic sites not only feed an addiction but can also introduce harmful images that desensitizes. In addition, computers have also introduced a larger breeding ground for pornographic images of underage children.
- Computers brought social media. Social media is also an addiction that users feel the need to be excessively and constantly engaged on a specific platform like Facebook or Instagram.
- Cybercrime. Computers invented a new type of crime called cybercrime. This is a faceless crime that is carried out using computers or the internet. These crimes are carried out by an individual sitting anywhere in the world with a computer that is hooked to the internet. They can steal your money, intellectual property, commit espionage, or even spy in your home through a camera.
- Black market. The black market is a place where the transaction of stolen goods and other illegal items takes place. These illegal items can be anything from stolen credit cards, exotic animals, prescription drugs, hitman, etc. This is an area where the customers and the suppliers want to hide these transactions from the government and law enforcement because they know what they are doing is nefarious.