There are several quality of life issues when it comes to computers and information systems. They range from the blurring of lines between work and leisure to the loss of jobs due to technology. I will focus on four quality of life issues: boundary maintenance, dependency and vulnerability, cybercrime and abuse, and employment. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The first of the four is “maintaining boundaries.” This quality of life issue is critical because it completely blurs the line between work and free time. There have always been professions that work primarily wherever possible, such as journalists, but technology makes this process much easier. Especially with the advancement of smartphones, no matter where you are or when, you always have the Internet at your fingertips. Personally, this has been a big problem in my life. Whether I'm Googling something or scrolling through social media, I tend to be completely engaged and oblivious to everything that's going on around me. This applies to me and my husband. It can be as simple as asking him to watch the time so we can dress our children appropriately. From there it can snow to see where the rain is coming from, then monitor the storm and next thing you know you're on YouTube watching videos of Hurricane Dorian. From an ethical standpoint, I think this would be frowned upon. Any company would happily accept any “out of hours” work as it doesn't impact the bottom line, but we're seeing work-life balance diminish more and more. This in itself could be considered unethical. The next quality of life issue is the fact that we are dependent on these computers and information systems, but even worse, we are vulnerable to them. For example, the national electricity grid, the telephone system, radio, television or any other available public service. All of these escape from computers and information systems without any security system behind them. If any of these fail or are sabotaged, the consequences could be catastrophic. While I don't have an exact personal example, there is a movie called "Live Free or Die Hard." In this film, John McClane must stop cyberterrorists from staging a "fire sale" in which key elements of the nation's infrastructure would be destroyed and disabled. From an ethical standpoint, I think this would also be frowned upon. Obviously, attacking the nation's infrastructure would be frowned upon, but just relying so heavily on these things without a backup plan might also be frowned upon. Yes, these systems exist to make our lives more pleasant and easier, but the mere fact that a chain reaction can make life hell is mind-blowing. The third quality of life issue is cyber crime and abuse. This speaks for itself. With the advancement of computers and information systems, new and improved ways to attack people and attempt to steal their information have emerged. Of course this means there could be several new ways to protect people, but we are all so inundated with scams and theft that we are so slow to trust anyone or anything in this digital age. Personally, I had my bank card details stolen, and to make matters worse, it's not even a card I use for anything other than online bills with whatever institution I owe. This wasn't a situation where my information was stolen by a skimmer at a station..
tags