UBC Reports | Vol. 50 | No. 7 | Jul. 8, 2004

The Social Impact of Computers

Mountains of Spam e-mails, viruses, worms, Internet predators luring children away. . . After 20 years of surveying the effects of computers and Internet use on society, Richard Rosenberg hasn’t chucked his PC out the window yet. But the UBC computer science professor has catalogued enough computer-related social issues to fill three editions of his book The Social Impact of Computers. The third edition, released in April by Elsevier Academic Press, is almost 40 per cent larger than the previous version. Not a surprise considering that since his last update, we’ve faced the debate about downloading music files, post 9-11 computer security concerns, the Microsoft anti-trust proceedings and Internet crimes -- just to name a few.

Three editions later, Richard Rosenberg has plenty to say about computers' impact on society.