Computers: Their Human and Cultural Impact

Abstract

In January 1983 the cover ofTIME magazine featured not the usual photograph of the Man of the Year but an illustration of the Machine of the Year: the personal computer. TIME\u27s cover was a dramatic illustration of how the computer, in only six or seven years, had entered the everyday world of the average American. The computer was becoming ubiquitous and commonplace, as familiar a household item as television set and telephone. But the TIME cover reminds us that the computer is more than a mere consumer durable. According to TIME the greatest influence for good or evil in 1982 was the computer. In the popular imagination the computer is more than a mere machine; it is a potent force actively shaping our social and private lives. What does the assimilation of this powerful machine into daily life mean for the lives of individuals and societies? How will people in various countries and cultures, not to speak of different generations, come to terms with the computer at work, at home or in school? Will contact with computers encourage people to think differently about themselves, their cultures, and their world? How will people in a computer-rich society differ from their forebears or their contemporaries in other less industrialised countries? What effects will the computer have on communication, on work and leisure? This issue of TRENDS highlights research which has begun to explore such questions. A future issue will consider the computer and its place in education