Ethical Impacts of Computer Systems on Our Personal Lives - Essay Example

Ethical Impacts of Computer Systems on Our Personal Lives Computer systems have their impacts on the personal lives of the users. It has resulted to different social as well as ethical issues in the lives of many people and society at large. The paper therefore covers the ethical impacts of the computer systems on our personal lives. It considers the ethical issues that arise from using the computer systems as well as the ethical responses to these issues. It gives the concerns that relate to the different ethical situations. Ethical impacts Computer ethics is a group of morals that regulate the users of computers and their use of the computers. The users of computers need to be aware of the ethical issues that are likely to arise from their use of the computers. The main ethical concerns from the use of computers include effects on privacy, effects of computer on the society and the issues concerning property rights. The privacy issue has increasingly become a major concern from the fact that sharing of information has been made easy by the availability of many options of sharing information over the internet. This raises concern because individuals or organizations might take advantage of this and might start sharing other people’s information without their concern. The ability of the computer information systems to hold huge amounts of information has also resulted to a situation where the privacy of the stored information is at risk of other people’s access. The effects caused by computers to the society may include health problems whereby use of the emerging computer information systems has resulted to many health problems such as the Computer Vision Syndrome and many others, which arise as a result of using computers over a long time period (Olumoye 155). Computer information systems have also resulted to ethical issues concerning employment. Implementation of these systems require redesigning of the existing processes of the business and at the end render many people unemployed. This is because the systems perform much of the work, which requires laying off some employees. Other ethical impacts that result from using the information systems include the effects on school. The impact caused on school going is that use of the computer information systems result to dishonesty in undertaking the academic work. The systems have impacted heavily on school going in that the school going students have acquired new ways of cheat in their class work, assignments and in their exams. Some students take advantage that their teachers and instructors have little knowledge concerning the use of these systems and instead of observing ethical standards in undertaking their work they use the systems to copy and cheat in their academic work. The students have several ways of cheating including using their mobile phones where many students have admitted to having cheated in their exams using their phones without the knowledge of their teachers. The students can store notes that are given to them during class time in their phones and can use these notes during their exams or when undertaking their continuous tests and exams. The students can also help other students to cheat by sending them text messages of the correct answers as they communicate using the phones while still undertaking their exams. Students have also ceased to give maximum attention to undertaking their assignments where they are required to undertake thorough research for the purpose of their assignments. The students have instead turned to the computer information systems where they copy assignments from sources such as the internet and submit it to the teachers for marking. The students also use devices that are computerized as an aid to their cheating in the exams. These devices may be such as iPads, tablets and laptops. This has resulted to the students becoming lazy in ways that they cannot perform their academic obligations and end up not meeting their academic and professional qualifications. Another impact is on property rights whereby through using the computer information systems, individuals copy the artistic work of other people and produce it as if it were their own creation. There are many reasons that direct an agreement to the ethical impact caused by the information systems. The first reason is that too much information relating to privacy of individuals and companies is stored in these systems. With the increased rate of computer crime, there is likelihood of access of this information, which might put the owners of the information at risk. Many people and organizations have claimed that their private information have been accessed by unauthorized persons or even have been altered without their knowledge. The issue of privacy on information has also been experienced in the social settings whereby information hackers for instance in the social media has caused negative issues to families and to other social contexts. There is also a reason of agreeing to that employment is another impact and this is because many organizations have laid off numbers of workers following their introduction of the computerized systems. Many people have been left without jobs since these systems necessitates the use of smaller workforce since they perform more duties, requiring the organization to employ less individuals (Olumoye 156). The impacts on the society are evidenced by many health problems that arise from the use of these computer systems. Many users of the systems are observed to experience different health issues. Research has indicated that many of the people that use computer systems experience eyes problems while others suffer from different disorders. The impact on school going is also an issue that is evidenced in many cases and in many schools. Students have neglected the value of working hard for attainment of success and have focused on cheating and acting in dishonest ways towards the attainment of their academic success. It has also rendered them lazy as they cannot complete their tasks as required and has also contributed to them attaining poor qualifications on completion of their studies as they cannot apply whatever that they learned in their job settings. Pirating artistic works of other people is observed in many cases whereby individuals produce works of others without the owner’s consent and even in the case where the students copy and paste materials directly from the internet without referencing the source. The social issues that have resulted from use of the computer information systems is such as a rise in level of computer games, whereby some have a negative effect of being addictive to the users. On the other hand, the games may also have a positive effect in that they are used for recreational purposes. Use of internet is also a social issue from the use of computer information systems. It has a positive effect of eliminating geographical barriers between different societies. It can also be used to increase the knowledge of many things within a short period of time. A negative effect of the internet however is that it is a threat to security of information to individuals, organizations and owners of artistic works. These can be obtained from the internet and in the case of artistic work, reproduction can be done without the consent of the owners. Computer crime is another social issue that results from the use of computer information systems. It entails using the computer to commit an act that is not legal. Some of the acts may be undertaken with the intention of interfering with and destroying data and computer software and interrupting the services of the computer. The availability of social networking sites is another issue. The positive effect of the social network is enabling people to interact and communicate and the negative effect is that it might be used for unethical purposes. Work Cited Olumoye, Mosud. Ethics and Social Impact of Information Systems in Our Society: Analysis and Recommendations. International Journal of Science and Research 2.11 (2013): 154-158. Read More