TOEFL iBT The Most Significant Impact of Computers (Revised)

 

What do you think has been the most significant impact computers have brought about to society? (Sociology)

 

 

☆Let’s think

Where are computers? In other words, where in our lives are computers working?

 

Note: Computers are not only desktop/laptop personal computers but also those embedded in other machines such as smartphones, electric appliances, electronic dictionaries, elevators, ATM, industrial robots, etc.

 

 

☆Hints for points

An Essay for Ideas and Expressions (Check out the underlined words and expressions)

The impact of the computer is like that of electricity. Supply of electricity has totally changed all people’s lives, from dark to light, from tiresome to easy, or from unthinkable to possible, and opened a new era. Computers have transformed the world dramatically into the one where we can no longer live without them; different lifestyles and new things are created and more democratic society has become possible.

Just like electricity, computers have become ubiquitous and indispensable. They are in almost all kinds of machines such as smart phones, TV sets, elevators, cash machines, factory robots, medical equipment, and air traffic control systems. Not a day would pass without them. Also, the computer has become part of infrastructure. The Internet connects the world and facilitates business, communication and many other activities, whose functions depend on it.

The computer has changed how things are done and has created new things. It facilitates faster, more accurate, and better designed jobs from calculation and document-making to trading to spaceship building. Household work is not an ordeal anymore thanks to electric appliances with built-in computers. As the computer evolves, scientific research and development is exponentially expedited, and art and entertainment create things that did not exist in the pre-computer age. The World Wide Web has globalized everyday communication. People can now receive and, more importantly, send out information across the world.

The computer has given people chances to change systems for the better, into more decentralized and transparent ones. Small business owners can now sell their products directly to consumers online, thus reshaping the distribution channels. Also, whistleblowing has become less risky. For example, government employees or officials who happen to find confidential information that the general public should know such as war crimes or corruptions can reveal it through whistleblowing websites like WikiLeaks by sending massive amounts of raw data anonymously, and people who are more informed owing to such leaks can organize nationwide demonstrations with worldwide supports to stand up against corrupt leaders using social networking services like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

People’s lives have changed drastically since personal computers and Windows 95 became widespread on the market and fiber-optic cables connected continents in the 1990’s. There are concerns about problems related to computers, such as tendency to allow monopoly in the IT industry, fake news, and occasional nostalgia for life before computers, while the technology keeps breaking new grounds and benefitting people. It is a phenomenon of the scale that involves all the people on this planet whether they have it or not and whether they like it or not. (429 words)

 

 

☆Related vocabulary

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Building a new infrastructure with world wide web (www) and cloud platforms

Much faster research and development   more efficient data-processing

Thousands of documents put in a memory stick and some CDs  

Equipment with built-in computers such as hospital facilities and artificial arms and legs

Treatments of patients in remote areas through the Internet   buildings much higher than before

 

COMMUNICATION & INFORMATION ACCESS

Letter → E-mail/Text-messaging   International phone call → Skype   Fixed phone → Mobile phone

Direct contacts (face to face or on the phone) → indirect contacts (through mails/texts/social media)

More information is available to the public and more people can participate

 

EDUCATION, BUSINESS & LABOR

Office/Class room → Remote/on Zoom   Storing documents in cabinets → In servers/Cloud   E-commerce

Research at the library → Research on the web   Paper dictionary → Electric dictionary

Making documents with pen, scissors, and paste → Making documents on a desktop, laptop, tablet, or smart phone

Production or distribution by humans → Computer networks and robots

More dependence on technology (spell-checkers, navigators, coding, etc.)

Loss of reality (Children’s performances getting lower since the introduction of tablets, Medical students getting less skillful in surgery, Degeneration of intelligence due to AI-use, etc.)

 

ENTERTAINMENT

Playing outside → Playing inside   Board games → Video or online games   Handmade animation → CG

Music stores and video shops → streaming services   More sharing of the same culture worldwide

Readers and audience passively receiving information → Actively participating in the programs by commenting through social media (Interactivity)

 

TOURISM

Travel agents making arrangements → Individuals buying tickets and making hotel reservations directly online

Household work: by hand or machines without computers → Machines with computers

Information through family members and neighbors → The Internet

 

RELATIONSHIPS

Communication only through e-mails or social media   Concept of friends changing through social media

 

AI

Computer technology has created Artificial Intelligence, which is both assisting and threatening our existence.

 

ADJECTIVES & ADVERBS faster, more efficient, more accurate, better designed, in much larger scale,

more open/inclusive/democratic/decentralized/entertaining, in countless ways, across vast distances, compact, interactive, profound, global, innovative

NOUNS far-reaching effects, change of global landscape, IT (information technology) revolution

VERBS advance, develop, decentralize, transform, reshape, revolutionize, fundamentally alter

 

 

 ☆Sample Answers for Ideas and Expressions

Sample A

【Main Idea】I think decentralization of information is the most significant impact of computers.

【Supporting Details】Computers gave birth to the Internet, and with it, they have disseminated information that had not been easily available to the public, often for free, and changed how society looks. Foreign newspapers, magazines, books, music albums, and movies that used to take weeks and months to arrive are now available online the moment they are published. Search engines like Google have made it possible to do research without going to a library or bookstores. Now anyone who has a computer terminal and online access can get the information, including the information that only authorities or certain group of people had access to, and people are taking advantage of the knowledge that they get online.

【Counterargument-treatment】Although not all information that exists in this world is available for everyone and misinformation and disinformation is around, this change is revolutionary because it redistributes information as resources, and this can potentially help the people in the lower layer of society move up the social ladder if they have the will and make efforts. No other changes have brought have so much strong impact on society as those computers have.

【Conclusion】Therefore, I am convinced that the most significant influence computers had on society is the information technology revolution. (215 words)

 

Sample B

【Main Idea】Computers have made people’s lives easier and lighter, and I believe this is their biggest impact.

【Supporting Details】They have made it possible to do activities more efficiently, They help us with household work, study, and almost all kinds of jobs. Computerized home appliances support our household jobs. The Internet enables us to do research faster and more extensively, and applications help make documents and charts, calculate, or manage schedule.

【Counterargument-Treatment】It is true that not all people benefit from computers and there are many drawbacks in life with computers. Factory workers have been replaced with robots. White-collar jobs have been replaced with AI. Information inequality has widened. Only rich countries benefit from computer technology to the full as half of the world households don’t have computers while 80 percent of the population of the developed countries have at least one. Climate change and much of the environmental destruction have been accelerated and business have been made possible by computers. However, it is also true that people in poor countries are indirectly helped by computers. For example, people in remote areas in poor countries trade or seek help using mobile phones; supply of goods has been expedited by computers; and protests like Arab Spring have been possible thanks to WWW.

【Conclusion】Life is so much easier for most of us now that we cannot go back to life before computers. Therefore, changing our lifestyles is the biggest impact of the computer.  (237 words)

Write your draft. Then read each other’s draft, asking questions and making counterarguments.

 

                                                   DRAFT