Forget television, radio, X-ray, radar. The computer is so valuable to mankind that it probably deserves to occupy the millennium pedestal as well.
Prior to cyberspace, only owners of presses benefitted from freedom of the press. Now, millions of computer users easily and instantly publish websites and communicate via e-mail with each other on the Internet.
Prior to cyberspace, accessing information sources meant consulting printed materials,usually with the help of reference librarians and other experts. Today, computer users easily and instantly consult information sources on every imaginable subject in every nook and cranny of the world.
Toddlers today are learning written alphabets, vocabulary and keyboarding skills while using computers. And, whereas TV is a passive experience demanding no use of imagination, computers are interactive and promote and demand language literacies.
Virtually every aspect of our lives is profoundly controlled or influenced by computers, which have become the Great Equalizers in education, commerce, communications and entertainment.
Nevermind that the computer is a dumb machine totally reliant on information and directions from human beings. It is, simply, just another tool.(24 OCTOBER 1999)
