Life Without Computers

I am a thirty-five year old mother of two boys and I have been married for almost nineteen years. I am working on my Bachelors Degree in the field of human Services and I attend school full-time. As anyone can imagine I am always extremely busy. My days start at five in the morning and on average I don’t get to bed until midnight. I don’t even like to think of what life would be like without my computer because I use it through out most of my day. The school I attend requires their students to retrieve all the necessary information for his or her classes via internet. I also use the computer for several other reasons that are equally important. I would say that on average I am on my computer about ten to twenty hours a week.

My life would change dramatically, since many of the daily functions I have come to rely on are electronic and often dependent on the proper functioning of the computer. The primary means of communication in the electronic age - e-mail - would be eliminated without use of computers; one would expect to see a return to a dependence on telephones, fax machines, and old-fashioned letter writing. I would also be slowed in virtually every major task I have to complete on a given day: research (the ability to swiftly and accurately locate information), word processing, and calculations would become exceedingly difficult. I must also acknowledge the entertainment value of the computer, which would be lost as well. I would no longer be able to watch DVDs (at least on my computer), listen to mp3 files, or play any sort of game that runs on a computer.

Overall the efficiency and access to global resources provided by the computer is of incalculable value, and as such I can say that society is better for having computers in this respect. The computer's ability to process and store large quantities of information for an extended period of time has revolutionized the way human beings perceive their world.