Last time I wrote on a class of people called the mobile phone maniacs who are so overwhelmed by the mobile phone that they do not bother to use it in a social friendly manner. Hoping my message reached across, I would now like to move on to the computer.

I am in love with the computer technology and all it has done to improve our lives. When it comes to work, the office could do no better today when everybody is entitled to a computer with Internet and periphery facilities like printing, photocopy and scanning.

Better yet the office is being empowered with sophisticated computer tools that can increase output with far less human effort. Accountants are having a break with software like QUICKBOOKS and our very own SMARTGOV to calculate salaries and balance companies’ account books.

This demands them to be knowledgeable and in control of the Software but saves time and energy. At school, university graduates have a testimony to tell when it comes to writing their final desertification; it is virtually impossible without a computer! You need the Internet to carry out most of the research work and various computing tools to compile and present your work.

In fact most countries have acknowledged the vital role of Information and Communication Technologies, ICTs in the learning process and included it in the academic curriculum. Our government has gone a step ahead and introduced the one laptop per child project to promote computing at elementary level.

We all love being associated with technology. Having an email was unheard of in the 80s (in most of the region) but by the year 2000 almost everyone was Internet-worked.

Communication became very easy and cheap even across the globe. In fact the world has become a global village and this makes it a lot easier for various economic sectors to flourish what with the now quick transactions that used to take ages to complete.

Business for one has advanced as transactions take place between people seated on computers that are continents apart with the Internet as the only medium.

With the Internet, electronic funds are transferred and one gets their consignments promptly- if not faster than the normal purchasing system.

With e-government, various countries maximize on ICTs to enhance administration and coordination of activities within republics.

E-Health is a reliable way of delivering health facilities to the sick in a timely manner. I am sure you do not need to be reminded of the benefits of the computer technology since most of you practically live off it! However the problems associated with this handy tool cannot go unnoticed.

The extensive use of the computer has compromised human capacity. The computer has basically taken over all forms of office work from documentation to data filing and information output. The only form of human writing you can come across in an office is a signature!

The computer could easily replace human resources only that it cannot think. It can execute all the commands it is given but needs to be controlled by a human unless under automatic or pre-programmed events.

Given the wrong instructions, the computer can be very destructive since it does exactly what it is told! For example one can deliberately or mistakenly delete a company’s records leading to huge financial losses not to mention the costly time and effort of reconstructing data systems.

Computers are also expensive to purchase and require licensed software like Operating Systems and Antivirus that cost a fortune.

Personally the nastiest problem I have encountered on the computer is viruses. These silly programs invade the machine with destructive results.

Recently a virus in form of a screen saver just popped out of nowhere and danced across my screen warning: "Your Computer Is Being Attacked.”

My friend who is not very conversant with computers came running with a flash disk and plugged it into my PC, exclaiming "give me that beautiful screen saver!” He infected a few other computers with the virus.

Before I knew it my PC was restarting itself and I could not work all day! I called in an expert who performed some IT wizardry and removed the bug but I had to wait for eternity while she ransacked her brain and the Internet for solutions.

Nevertheless, I learnt a lesson; I installed an antivirus, updated it and scanned the PCs regularly. As for my friend with a flash disk, he was banned from using it on my PC until it was clean-formatted.

Internet is supposed to be the icing on the cake for the computer but some people sit all day surfing! In fact people visit the Internet for ungodly reasons like pornography, sending viruses, hacking and scheming ‘e-theft’ or Internet based stealing.

Do not fall victim to fishy business deals or unknown prizes you supposedly won on the Internet. One cannot fully grasp the beauty of the computer technology or its potential harm but all in all, the pros beat the cons.

Contact: dedantos2002@yahoo.com