The Changes in Society caused by Computers and the Printing Press
I wrote this essay for my Grade 12 History course. In it I took the flawed opinion that computers have had more impact on the world than the printing press. Although I belive that in the long run they will. The printing press has had many many more years for it to take its effect.
Throughout history, many technological advances have altered our society. Society has never been affected as much by new technology as it was by the introduction of two great innovations: the printing press and computers Christmas carol a download. Johann Gutenberg developed the first printing press in 1436; it allowed the cheap production of books at a cost that the common individual could afford. The first computer was developed in the 1940s for military use; nowadays they are capable of doing almost anything imaginable - given the right components. The development of the printing press allowed researchers to all work from exactly the same books therefore allowing them to make fewer errors. Computers, through networks allow people to access the same information instantly and to add their own work to be accessed by people around the world. When the press created inexpensive books, many people began to find that reading is a wonderful source of entertainment. Computers have limitless pleasure possibilities, with: video games, Internet chat and information that you can download and read forthwith, all without even leaving your chair. With the printed book, it was much easier for anyone to learn how to read and write because the people could afford to buy themselves books. Computers advanced the possibilities of education even farther, with interactive simulations and CD-ROM resources. The year 2000 problem in computers is a great example of how much they have affected our life, one problem in them has such a possible impact that some people are predicting the apocalypse will come from it. The printing press allowed current news to be distributed though newspapers. Computers allowed the information in a newspaper to be as up-to-date as the moment that it was printed. The printing press had a considerable effect upon society but computers caused an incomparable change in civilization.
The printing press and computers allowed people to work together on projects with much greater ease than before either of them were developed. Before the printing press, scribes copied books by hand; they made errors nearly every time they copied a book therefore adding to the errors made by the scribe who copied the previous book. The printing press made exactly the same copy every time. Computers allowed people to work from the same source on a much greater scale. Using the Internet, people can transfer files between their computers, communicate through e-mail, and access journals and other books all without leaving their desk. One person when asked about the usefulness of the Internet said “A person … on electronic mail can say ‘Help’ to 10 000 people … The next morning he may have 15 answers to the problem of which 13 are wrong. But he has answers”. The printing press only allowed people to work from the same source. Computers allowed people to work from the same source easier and also allowed people to post changes to the sources, post their own work for the world to read, and to talk to people all over the world.
Each of the technologies opened new worlds of entertainment for the public to enjoy. The printing press was initially used primarily to produce books and pamphlets for churches including Bibles, missals, Psalters and antiphonies. However, people also requested many romances of chivalry along with other books just for the enjoyment of reading them. The books allowed people to read about great adventures and imagine the worlds in their minds they wished to interact in these fantasies. With the advent of computers, video games were created; they allowed people to interact with the adventure and change it in whatever way that they would like. An eight-year old boy once said “A long time ago there were no toys and everyone was bored. Then they had TV but then they were bored again. They wanted control. So they invented video games” Leonard Steinhorn showed how much video games are affecting society when in 1992 he wrote in the Washington Post that video games define “a dynamic new cultural milieu … Through video and computer games and all the fast-paced and disjointed videos on MTV, young Americans have been processing information in a way that makes little sense to the uninitiated, but is really the wave of the future. To them, ideas and information come visually, in images … All those hours playing Nintendo are preparing them for a new age of interactive technology? Clearly the printing press just allowed people to read and imagine adventures; computers let people interact with them and to let them unfold in the way that they desire.
The printing press made education much easier for people, but computers revolutionized the entire education process with multimedia CD-ROMs and simulations. When middle class people were able to buy printed books they were able to learn how to read and write, a talent that previously only the wealthy were able to attain. In addition, the press radically changed the way that university lectures were executed. Previously, lectures consisted of a teacher reading from a book and the students rushing to write it all down; alter the invention of the printing press the students were able to obtain a copy of that book and read it at home at their leisure. The printing press was limited in how many pictures that could be in a book and in the 16th century, teachers were worried that printed books would destroy the visual image and demanded more pictures in books. Computers allowed multimedia books containing hundreds of pictures and videos. The multimedia books can be stored on CD-ROMs, which cost less that 50� each and they can hold 1000 books that have 300 pages each. The military uses computer trainers to practice pilots and tank drivers; the simulators have a very realistic recreation of the real thing without the danger that is always present in actual combat, The printing press simply allowed people to learn in an easier fashion. Computers could do that and offer multimedia resources including simulations, pictures and videos that give people a much more useful education.
The best example of how much that computers have affected everyone’s life is the year 2000 problem, or Y2K as it is called. The Y2K problem is that many computer programmers stored years in their computer programs by using only two digits such as ‘99 instead of 1999; the problem is that when the year rolls over to 2000 it will be called ‘00 and interpreted by computers as 1900. Many people have begun to say that Y2K will result in TEOTWAWKI, “The End of the World, As We Know It”. The whole world is dependant on electronics that have the Y2K problem and people believe that on January 1, 2000 this will happen: First, the power goes out and groceries go bad. Food distribution systems will die, leaving store shelves empty. Businesses will fail because they are not Y2K prepared or are reliant on companies who are not. The stock market will plummet and banks will calculate interest for negative 100 years. The police will be crippled and the law of the jungle will run the world. 13 Many religious people believe that the four horsemen of the apocalypse will ride in with a global computer crash. The Information Technology Association of America released a poll in March 1998 showing that 44% of the companies polled already had experienced problems caused by the Y2K bug. It is expected that 15% of households will have power problems due to Y2K, 12% will have transportation problems, and 15% telephone problems. Clearly the year 2000 problem will affect nearly every aspect of life and therefore shows how much computers have been integrated into our society. The printing press never had such an effect on the world that a simple mistake made by its creators could have such a momentous effect upon the world.
Both innovations gave people unprecedented access to up-to-date information in newspapers. James Gordon Bennett, publisher of The New York Herald said in 1830 that the newspaper is “the great organ and pivot of government, society, commerce, finance, religion, and all human civilization”. The computer gave the newspaper the ability to contain information that was as up-to-date as the moment it was printed. Reporters could type their articles into a computer, causing them to be 20-30% more efficient than before computers. They were more efficient because now they could easily make changes, send the article to be proofread by their colleagues and then send it off to be printed much quicker. Nan Robertson a reporter for the New York Times said “The Computer has made it infinitely easier. And now I’m absolutely addicted. The computer has liberated us”. The articles could be send over networks to printers worldwide to be printed where the papers are to be sold instead of printing them in a central location and then sending the papers out to be sold. This saved money on shipping and allowed the printing of late-breaking news? Clearly printing a newspaper without a computer was slow and did not allow late breaking news to be printed. Computers allowed reporters to write their articles quickly and have them sent worldwide over a network to be printed.
In conclusion, it is obvious that computers had a greater effect upon our civilization than the printing press. The computer allowed many new things to happen and improved extensively upon what the printing press brought to our world. The computer let people to work together and communicate about their work with unprecedented ease; the press just allowed people to work from the same resources, not to communicate together. Computers can be used to play video games which let people explore huge imaginary worlds and take part in what is happening in that world around them. The press only let people read books and imagine the worlds, they could not take part in these fantasies. The computer let people learn in amazing new ways, with multimedia presentations and interactive simulations; the books that the printing press produced only contained text and the occasional graphic. Computers are integrated into every part of life so much so that many people are worried that a simple change of the year from 1999 to 2000 could cause the end of the world, as we know it. Computers allowed newspapers to be much more up to date and informative than the traditional printing press allowed. What could ever influence our civilization as much as computers did?
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