Back<<

Some people say that computers have made life easier and more convenient. Other people say that computers have made life more complex and stressful. What is your opinion? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.
TOEFL CBT 267 (5.0)>>> 22/M/Japan>>> University Student
I think computers have made life easier and more convenient. But at the same time, I know sometimes computers make our lives more stressful. I bouht my computer last winter. Until then, I didn't like to have my own computer because I thought I could not handle a computer. I don't mean that I thought I could not handle my computer technically. I was afraid that I might be addicted to the computer. In my country, most people like to watch television, sometimes we see TV programs for two or three hours a day. As a result, we tend to sit up until late at night, and that makes our life more stressful. I was afraid that computers might make my life more stressful as television did. So I didn't buy my computer until last winter.

Last winter, I had to buy my computer, because I was assigned to do some physiological experiment during my winter vacation. Without a computer, doing the experiment seemed to be very complex, so I bought my computer. After having finished my experiment, I began to do the Internet. Some of my friends say that the Internet is time consumable and we can not get any thing at last. I think what they say might be true. But I think I, myself, take the advantage of the Internet. For example, one of my hobbies is to study English, and I often take some English tests such as TOEFL and TOEIC. By using my computer, I can register to the TOEIC test more easily. With my computer, all I have to do is to enter my credit card number in the registration form on the screen. I don't have to go to some post office to pay the test registration fee. Though we can not register to the TOEFL test, we can take the test by using a computer. In my country, the computer-based testing began one year ago, while we can still take the paper-based testing in a few place. And I think the TOEFL CBT is very convenient for us. The CBT enable us to take the test whenever we want, and we can get our approximate score immediately after the test ends. On top of that, we can know our exact score only after one week if we use phones to hear our scores. On the other hand, PBT took us for one or two months to know our scores.

As I have said above, computers can make our lives very convenient. But if we are hooked up to the Internet as we watch television, computers would consume our time and make our life more stressful. In my country many people began to use DSL instead of the ordinally telephone line. DSL makes it possible to transfer dozens of information at a high speed. And if we want to use the Internet more that one hours a day, the DSL line is cheaper than the telephone line. To avoid being addicted to seeing the world wide website and consuming our time, I think we must admit both the advantage and disadvantage of the computer.