Sajith Mohan

History Of Computers

Before we lay our hands on the most debated topic ‘advantages and disadvantages of computers’ it is important that we have a look into the history of computers too. It was Charles Babbage in 1837 who first coined his analytical engine as the computer. Who knew computers will have a huge impact from then on our lives. In this article we will look into the various advantages and disadvantages of computers and how it affects our life.

Today, the computer has involved in most of the areas of our life. Computers are making our lives easier day by day and are one of the essential part of our life. However, have you ever thought about the disadvantages of the beloved computers? Yes, let’s have a discussion on advantages and disadvantages of computers.

Advantages of Computers

Computers have changed the way of our lives. Nowadays, computers are used in every field, from local shopkeepers to big data scientists and  computers helps each of them to perform their tasks quickly with accuracy. It reduces the time, effort, cost and error rate. In short, makes our lives easier.

The ever heard disadvantage of computers is unemployment. Are computers creating unemployment to the society? The truth is, computers are not creating unemployment, however, it created thousands of new career opportunities (hardware technicians to software engineers) and creating new opportunities every day (eg: Digital Marketing).

1. Large and Reliable Storage Capacity

Computers can help you to store a large volume of data. Since the data on computers are digitalized, the books available in a whole library can store on a computer hard disk.

You can also store different types of files such as text, audio and video.

2. Connection with the Internet

Computers allow you to connect to the internet and help you to access the data available on the Internet, interact with people across the global  free of cost, share your files and even helps you to purchase your favourite food from your home. Cool… isn’t it?

3. Consistency

Computers are well known to do your repetitive and tedious jobs. A computer is a machine so the output for a task should exactly same of every time. 

Disadvantages of Computers

Advantages and disadvantages are two sides of a coin. Anything on the planet has advantages and disadvantages. 

Let’s have a look at some disadvantages of the computers:

1. Data Security

The data stored in your computers are secure and easily accessible unless a system failure or a hacker stole your data. The chances are higher for these to happen if you are handling sensitive data on computers with much security knowledge about the computers and computer networks. When computers became famous, the Internet soon  came into existence. The Internet, though a good tool there are a lot of things going on in there. This includes the dark web and all the illicit contents on the web.

2. Health Problems

Addicted to computers or computer games? Computers can affect your health badly if you are using computers improper and for a long time. This occasionally happens to children who addicted to computer games and office executive who are using computers for a long time daily. Corporates and IT professionals are serious victims of the health problems caused by computers.

3. Impact on Environment

With ever growing technologies and fast changing computer gadgets, people are dumping their old computers and moving to newer computer models. Old models are being scrapped in minutes. Authorities have confirmed that the rate of increase of E-waste is more that we can imagine. Even though we have the concept of e-recycling the feasibility of that concept is still a question.

4. Computers don’t Have Intelligence.

Does your computer have a brain? Yes, your computer has a brain (CPU) but it doesn’t have intelligence and common sense (you heard it right). 

Computers perform just based on the instruction that we have already written on its memory using various computer programming languages. The computer doesn’t re-check or use it’s common sense to verify the output itself (for example, if you teach computer 1+1=5 on your computer program, 1+1 will end up 5 for your computer each and every time you run your program).

With ever-growing technology and fast changing gadgets, people are dumping their old electronic devices and moving on to the newer and more sophisticated versions. With the latest gadgets being bought off the shelf in no time, old gadgets are being scrapped by the minute. The E-waste that is getting piled up has an  adverse effect on the environment. The metals and materials used in these electronic gadgets that are discarded find their way into water bodies and the soil. These materials are highly toxic and experts believe that they can cause serious health problems.

• You want a brand new high-end smartphone with the latest specifications and you are willing to dump that old phone of yours. Why not cash on it rather than throw it away? sell your old mobile to a refurbishing company and you will not only profit from the deal but you can help reduce the impact of e-waste in a small way.

• If you are unhappy with the way your old laptop is performing, why not upgrade it rather than buy a new one. Most systems have software that can upgrade to a better version. Many systems have memory and performance enhancing features. Computers can have memory and performance enhancing features added to them. Deleting unwanted data or zipping them can help save space. Further, you can store sensitive information on a cloud online and hence can boost your system’s performance.

• The next time you decide you want to buy a new electronic device like a phone thinks about buying a used smartphone online. You can avail great offers when you buy refurbished gadgets. You save money, reduce e-waste, and you get a quality checked product that you can be sure.

• Make sure you buy environment-friendly electronic items. Look for products labeled with Energy Star or those are certified by the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT).