3.1 Society - 3.1b Leisure
3.1b Leisure
Computers are used in many different ways. These may be in the following:
Playing computer games - a favourite of many of the younger generation;
Word-processing letters or other material;
For writing programs;
For running educational software;
For working out complex calculations (as in Science).
Each of the above provides its own kind of enjoyment and sense of achievement. Computers may be used to enhance other activities such as an athlete using a special piece of software to help them to assess and check up on their fitness and plan their trai
ning method.
Parents (and people of the older generation) who are not "computer literate" may find it very difficult to distinguish between the various uses of the computer when they are confronted by a child demanding one. They may understand that computer
s are educational - but they may not know that computers can be abused. Children may find it easier to "make friends" with a machine that never gets angry, never makes fun of them and never goes off "in a huff" instead of socialising
with other people. It is a situation like this that the social development of a child will become impaired.
Most of the time, parents do not know what their child does on their computer apart from playing games. Recently, there was deep concern for young children and teenagers exchanging pornographic material and examining it at home. It has given the compute
r a very unfavourable image and has since had to be covered up - but it still exists elsewhere.
Computer game addiction is one of the subjects of most concern associated with young people. Arcade machines can be played in sports centres, public houses, restaurants and other various places. The fee is relatively low for a game and because there is
usually no prize, they cannot really be considered as a form of gambling, (although the government classes arcade games machines as gambling machines alongside the fruit machines). However, there is occasionally a form of addiction similar to that of gam
bling when a person may become obsessed with the desire to "do better next time", and a significant amount of money may be spent as a result. The only valuable advantage of a computer over an arcade machine is that a fee is not charged for a se
ssion of playing games.
Although computers are a very good way of improving the speed and productivity of a company - they are not always used this way. A lot of employees use leisure software in the office. Games such as "Solitaire" are played if the employee is fed
up or cannot apply themselves to their work. This may not seem so serious, but it costs companies millions of pounds a year. To help remedy this, a new piece of software, called the "Game Cop", is installed onto computers to detect if games a
re played during working hours. It can be disabled during lunch times.
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