This 5 page paper addresses the introduction of the computer into the business world and explores its positive and negative effects on society. Included are examples of industries, such as accounting, engineering and architecture that have been profoundly influenced. Other points addressed include downsizing, loss of privacy and the older population in the work force. Bibliography lists 15 sources.
Name of Research Paper File: D0_Compwork.doc
Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
needs to look back only thirty years to see a completely manual world. It is hard to imagine businesses operating without computers. In fact, people strongly resisted its introduction as
they thought that their livelihoods were in jeopardy. They foresaw computers taking over mundane tasks, and cutting clerical jobs, and they were correct. However, no one imagined how many people
would be involved with the maintenance, programming and operating of machines that filled entire rooms initially. While the introduction of the Personal Computer in the eighties was a sort of
revolution in its own right, this along with the creation of the internet reduced the necessity for large mainframes. Today, businesses, large and small use both. While many big corporations
rely on mainframe computers and employ large numbers of programmers, other businesses have made use of networks using just personal computers. The effects of the introduction of computers into
the workplace is largely positive, but there are negative ramifications as well. In the late seventies and early eighties, computer languages were used by programmers to create quite primitive
programs on large mainframes. Cards would be keypunched to feed the processor each line of a program created in languages such as COBOL, PL1, RAMIS, FORTRAN and many others. While
some languages have survived the PC revolution, many languages have become obsolete. Yet, the change from manual bookkeeping to computerization twenty years ago required clerical workers to devote many hours
and a change in methodology in order to feed the computers the numbers they previously wrote in their books. This required a mental shift. Many older workers, set in their
ways, resisted the new technology while others thrived on the new technology and this created a momentum in terms of production for some; unfortunately, many of the older people