Effects of Computer Development on the American Society - Essay Example

TECHNOLOGY Effects of Computer Development on the American Society The invention of computers is, in fact, the most significant technological development in the 21st century. This development, that took place in the mid twenties, basically transformed government and business practices. However, it left a permanent mark on the American society and drastically changed the American behavior and life style as well. The physical introduction of computers into the American society is an important part of the story, however, the introduction of different Ideas for using this technology were as important as the physical incretion. New ideas from the new generation were demolishing the older generation's thoughts. Ideas such as the "bigger is better" now became meaningless. And this transform paved the way for the development of smaller, faster and more reliable machines. In its initial stages, the computer was distant from the American public. Most of the American thought that computers were a sort of alien systems for which they had no use in daily life. Computer developers tried to change that idea by making their systems smaller and easy to find. As a result of this approach, computer technology became well attached to the roots of the American lifestyle by the early eighties of the 21st century. Computers were now sufficiently developed and available to satisfy customer's requirements. Ideas for computer applications were also developed and introduced new banking, entertainment and shopping practices. The development of the integrated circuit in the early 1960's made possible the design and construction of affordable computers that were very accurate and were also small enough to be deployed in an office or a classroom. The video display terminal and the multi-tasking abilities of those new computers made them a popular choice. As a result, ATM machines were introduced for the first time. The early ATM machines were not dependent on a centralized computer network; however, their popularity was on the rise. By the early 1980's, the ATM security was increased, and the machine became a public necessity in the United States. The ATM machine began to appear in different shops and stores. And by the mid eighties, 40 percent of the customers completed about 50 percent of their banking transactions using ATMs. The video game development serves as the best example of how the American entertainment routine was transformed. Steve Russell's "space war" was the first such game developed in 1962. At that time, Russell was MIT graduate student. In his game, a spacecraft was represented by two dots. The dots were controlled by two separate switches. This game became very popular all over the United States, especially among students, and it makes the beginning of the video game industry. In early 1968, "Odyssey", the first home video game system was introduced by Ralph Baer. Crude graphic lines were created by deploying 40 diodes in the system. In 1972, The Odyssey system appeared in the market and thus opened the way for competition in the field. In the same year, Nolan Bushnell announced the foundation of Atari that created the first commercially flourishing coin-based "pong". This was a simple ping-pong video game where large number scores are possible. It was first displayed in California at a club in Sunnyvale. The public was amazed. In 1977, Atari decided to enter the video entertainment market after pong's astonishing success. Their experience was not initially successful, however, the VCS or video computer system designed by Atari sold about 15 million units and thus Atari was now one of the building blocks of the American home entertainment industry. In addition to the home systems, other public consoles were designed by the company and by early 1980's over a million such systems were spread over the entire country. The American lifestyle and video games were now integrated. Computer technology also transformed the music industry. Robert Moog, a Cornell University PhD student, created the first electronic synthesizer. The system was presented in 1964. Although the system was complicated and required special skills especially when certain tuning adjustments were needed, however, by the year 1970, the system's popularity went beyond the expectations. Synclavier synthesizer, which was the first digital synthesizer, was developed in 1980. The new system further improved the old and popular system; in fact all the tuning problems were eliminated. Information transfer between computers and other digital instruments was made possible with the introduction of MIDI computer standard by the year 1983. In that year, the price of the digital synthesizer became as low as 500 dollars. Different music editing and production techniques were introduced by computers, along with different other data transfer and storage facilities. Such methods and facilities completely reshaped the music development world to what it is now today. The American film industry was also affected by the use and spread of computers. This technology had an effect on both production method and also on the ideas of the stories. In 1968, the computer made its first celebrated appearance on the silver screen in the movie 2001: A space Odyssey. In 1977, George Lucas created Star Wars in which both the quality of production and story were influenced by the computer development and the future ideas of that time. Science fiction ideas are still in use in many of today's films. Transformers is one of the latest of such movies were computer and machine development are the main theme. The theme of the movie dates back to the early eighties, however, the high graphics standards which were realized by the current computer technology made that movie worth watching. By 1983 fiction stories were no more the only ideas for computer movie scripts. In fact the actual use of computers in daily life by the American public was reflected and stories about programmers, IT experts or even ordinary people using computers were on the rise. Although computer hardware developers are the main people responsible for all the changes that affected the American life style, however, one should not forget the hard work of those people who realized the potential of using computers and introduced new applications and ideas. Those individuals believed that the computer technology should be more accessible and user friendly to the American public. As a result of this belief, a countercultural movement started in the 1960s that extended into the seventies demanding freedom for the society and the communication tools from any governmental or corporate interests. At that time, the United States federal government together with the leading production organizations exercised complete control over the computer technology. The prices were also high. The pioneer of hypertext, Ted Nelson, and others were hoping to create a world were the average individual may not be left behind. Together with the expanding amateur electronic and computer hobbyist movement, the countercultural view finally led to the establishment of the Silicon Valley in California. And that place witnessed the birth of the American microcomputer industry. The American social characteristics and life style changed tremendously with the introduction of computers. During the last ten years, computer hardware and application development made data storage, manipulation and transmission a lot easier. The United States governmental operations were completely transformed and the business conduct was changed. The old entertainment systems were enhanced and new methods and ideas for entertainment were introduced. Information and ideas are no more restricted, now they can flow easily and that affected the customary newscast techniques beyond the expectations. All these changes were the result of a technological revolution. This was, like any other revolution, a complicated sum of different and countless effects which altered the face of the American society forever. Reference: Jared Trees, "Computer Technology and its Early Impact on American Society", U.S. History 261, Laura Siebuhr, March 10, 1999, Nov 17, 2007 < http://landru.i-link-2.net/jtrees/text/u_s_history.txt> Read More