Overview Part 2 30 August 2006

Short Paper Assignment  4-5 page persuasive paper on a current controversy  5 Pages is the limited  Assignment Assignment  A useful list of good resources:

Agenda  Course themes Effect of computers on individuals, groups, and society  Course objectives Identify controversial areas Promote ethical thinking  Computers in our everyday lives Benefits Risks

But, with benefits come problems  What are the unexpected problems that have occurred because of computers? Productivity loss Misinformation Isolation Addiction Pre-existing problems become worse  Examples?

Productivity Problems  Many flavors: Spending too much time doing what needs to be done Spending time on the C’s, not A’s (Alan Lakein) Disruption Goofing off  Which of these are computer-unique?

Spending too much time …  There’s so many possibilities…  There’s so much information available…  With a little more work…  This is such a neat function….  This would be a cool tool to try…  Consider: your very own font!

Does it add information?  Text message “thanks”  Same message in a special font  With a picture  With an animated picture  With a video clip  Costs of the additional frills? Time (both sides), bandwidth, space

C’s, not A’s  Always easy to spend the time on the less important items  Easier on a computer…why?

Distractions  Why is it easier on a computer? Something demanding about or IM  Are they always bad?  When is concentration critical? When does a break help?  How people are trying to minimize the problem

Goofing Off  The number of sites and games Goofing off online YouTube (one of my favorites) YouTube  And if you’re worried about your boss… Anti-Boss Key  But the boss has options too: Monitoring software

Misinformation  Sometimes amusing, sometimes dangerous  With better communication, easy to spread rumors  It’s a bad enough problem, that we have

Isolation  What can you do without leaving home? Work Shop Communicate Bank Order food to be delivered Pay bills …

Addiction  What does addiction mean?