There are various uses of computers in our life. The work which would take days and months can be done within minutes with computer assistance. The innovations in computers have also brought significant changes in every industry, whether it is consumer or creator, computers have touched the lives of everyone.
The Top 20 Uses of computers in various fields are –
Use of computer in Business
The computers are used in business for a variety of purposes ranging from printing documents to tracking the investments of the company.
Computers have become an integral part of the business. Many businesses do not exist in physical locations and are solely dependent on the computer and the internet for example Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), etc.
Also, computers increase the productivity and efficiency of any business whether online or offline. The employees of the company are trained for using the computer tools before they start to work in the offices. By doing so, the company can increase productivity with the help of technology and boost their sales which generates revenue for the company.
There are various uses of computers in business such as the employees are trained to use software applications to handle the company’s important data, designing and presentation for office meetings, Research, and developing of the products, forecasting sales and preparing the budgets, Automating the repeatable tasks, preparing advertisement for new launches, publishing of the content on the internet, establishing communication within the organization, storage and analysis of data present within the database of a company and many more.
Use of computer in Health and medicine
The computers have brought radical changes in the healthcare sector ranging from advanced labs, enhanced surgical methods, biotech researches, etc.
The health and medicine sector is one of the sectors which is heavily influenced by computer technology. The average human life expectancy is increasing every year due to technological advancements. Computers have become so integrated with this industry that there are subjects such as biotechnology, nanotechnology, cellular science, etc. being introduced.
There are various uses of computers in healthcare such as nurses and doctors can monitor the patient from anywhere within the organization with the help of a personal digital assistant (PDA), the computers can live to monitor the body-oxygen levels of the patients and store these reports for medical analysis, the surgeons depend on the live medical imaging to operate on the internal organs, the computers are used for inventory management of the health clinics within the hospital, the doctors and nurses can provide the offsite care to the patient as there may be a time when they are not present within the organization, computers are used for generating the bills and receipts of the medical procedures, the laboratory depends upon the computer for processing the various internal body scan, and many more.
Use of computer in Banking
Computers are used in the banking sector as they are less prone to error and can accurately calculate large calculations within a matter of seconds, these characteristics make computers well suited for the need of banking.
Computers have kept the banking industry with the technological advancements in society. There are various uses of computers in the banking sector. The computers are used for keeping the record of the account details and other information of the account holder. The computers perform various accounting functions such as the calculation of interest rates and taxes. The computer networks are used to communicate with the other branches of the bank present within a location. The computers are used for generating the account statements which contain information about the transaction history of the customers of the bank. The input devices (eg. MICR, OCR) which are attached to the computer system are cable for scanning and reading the coded characters on the passbook and checkbook. The computers help the bank employee to track, analyze and report the customers of the bank and inform them about monthly payments, sufficient funds, etc.
Also, online banking or internet banking is not remotely possible without computers. Online baking involves utilizing the services of the banks which involve financial transactions from the financial institution’s website.
Use of computer in education
The computers are used in schools and colleges to develop skills and enhance the quality of education.
The computers are actively used in computer-aided learning (CAL) which involves the use of audio-visual techniques that are used to prepare lesson plans. Computer-based training (CBT) is the software programs that are prepared with the assistance of expert educators which provide interactive multimedia for students to play along.
The internet has also brought phenomenal changes in the field of education. Various Edtech companies offer online courses and certificates to the students that help them get jobs. Most of the content earlier found in textbooks can now be easily found on the search engine in a matter of seconds. The libraries in the books are made available online to the students which can be accessed from the institution’s website.
There are various uses of computers in college or school for many purposes such as storing the exam results of the student, preparing the timetable and schedule events, tracking and analyzing the performance of the students, establishing easy communication within the institution, maintain the fee bills and receipts, maintain the library records, preparing notices and circulars, preparing question papers, and many more.
Use of computer in entertainment
Computers have affected the traditional entertainment mediums such as music, movies, games, and many more with modern IT services such as live streaming concerts, binge-watching, OTT platforms, etc. It will be not wrong to say that computers have changed the entertainment industry completely.
Historically, we can see the changes that the entertainment industry has gone through, especially in the movie sector. The motion pictures replaced the stage performance, then the TV sets replaced the motion picture and now computers are replacing the TV sets. Similar changes can be seen in other entertainment sectors such as movies, music, arts, sports, games, etc.
From the perspective of the creators in the entertainment sector, newer and innovative tools in the computer sector are helping the creators to produce more quality movies, music, animations, cinematography, 3D graphics, etc. Whenever there is an innovation in the computer industry, it ought to affect the entertainment sector heavily.
Some of the common platforms in the entertainment sector available on the Internet are music platforms such as Spotify and Soundcloud, movie platforms such as Netflix and Amazon prime, Gaming platforms such as Stream and Playstation, EBook platforms such as Kindle and Apple iBook, and many more.
Use of computer in Government
The computers are used in various places in the government, whether it be a legislative, executive, or judicial branch of the government, the computers are found to improve efficiency and productivity.
As in a corporate office, the computers are greatly used for a variety of tasks, same is the case in government offices. In government offices, the computers are used for record-keeping of employees and citizens maintained in databases and managed by computer programmers, computers are used in preparing payments of the employee which requires various accounting functions to calculate in hand salaries, preparing circulars and notices for important events and meetings, and many more.
The various government sectors where computers are greatly used are military and defense, Law enforcement, Information and broadcasting, Communication and Information technology, Technology and Research, Energy and Power, Commerce and Industry, and many more areas.
The common uses of computers in all the above sectors are maintaining the data and information in the sectors database, providing secure communication within the department, various data processing tasks (calculations and accounting), performing decision making tasks based on computer-generated analysis and reports, better teaching and training, and many more.
Use of computer in Science and research
Computers have greatly contributed to the field of science. Computers have made it possible to collect large amounts of research data and to make it available to every researcher in the world through the internet.
Scientific research involves first of all ideating the hypothesis, preparing maths behind the hypothesis, and collecting evidence to prove the hypothesis into theory. The proving part requires a good amount of experimental work and there is a great amount of data that is generated after each experiment. Before computers, the researchers would maintain the data of experiments in a file record. But today with the help of computers these data can be recorded in various spreadsheet-based applications.
The advantages of using computer applications in research work are easy to find errors in data, quick and accurate scientific calculations, performing statistical calculations become a matter of seconds and many more.
The internet has also played a significant role in science and research. The internet provides the medium to share the finding of the research on the world wide web. Cloud computing on the internet provides a medium for scientists to work together despite being at different locations.
Use of computer in Computer Based Training (CBT)
Computer-Based Training can be used to deliver any course instruction but the primary mode of delivery is a computer system. Many organizations use Computer Based Training (CBT) to train their employees before they start working in a real environment.
Computer-based training is used to train any conceivable subject, but the most popular subject in CBT are the subjects that are related to computers such as specific software training, computer programming, etc. Web-based training has also become popular where you don’t require to download any specific software to access the training program, but you have to login into the web-based platform with your login ID and password and access the training program such as distant learning courses.
The major advantage of computer-based learning is that the learner can think, respond, and give feedback at his own pace and more individual attention is provided to the learner. The learner can learn at his convenience of location without the expense of time or travel. Computer-based training can be specifically designed for its convenient use by physically challenged.
Computer-based training greatly helps IT, professionals, to get their certification without the hassle to attend classroom lectures, this, in turn, helps employees to keep up with the ever-changing technology required in the industry.
Use of computer in Offices
Computers are invaluable assets to a workplace. The computers are used in offices in almost all activities from creating documents to communicating with customers.
The computers in the offices are used for different purposes with different levels in offices. The managers and executives in the offices can use the computer to monitor the performance and track the day-to-day activities within the offices as well as they can monitor the work of the employee and workstation and allocate time accordingly to manage them. The computers are used in offices to provide seamless interconnection within the office, this interconnection can be used to provide important messages to the employees on their email IDs and also alert the notification to employees about any important meeting and all this can be done under the supervision.
The computers are used to store and remove data from databases in the offices. It is very necessary to handle the large amount of data that is generated in day-to-day work such as reports, office logs, meeting records, etc. Therefore handling data is one of the important tasks in offices.
The computer also increases the productivity of the employee in the offices. There are various works which were earlier done on pen and paper are now executed on computers which help to accomplish work with minimal effort.
Use of Computer at Home
In today’s world, where everything is connected to the internet and the Internet of Things (IoT) is implemented to make smart homes, computers are now more in use at home than ever.
The computer finds various places at home in electronic gadgets as embedded electronic chips, smart appliances used in the kitchen, remote-controlled switches, etc., connected with the personal intranet. The internet has become embedded into every appliance at home whether it is Television or refrigerator, computers have increased performance and made it more efficient.
The most common uses of computers at home will include attending an online classroom, performing office work, watching movies and playing games, maintaining personal budget and managing personal finance, shopping and paying bills, filing important documents, preparing reports and assignments, video conferencing with family and friends, learning new skills, accessing social media, and many more. The uses of computers in the home are innumerous. Computers with the internet have become part and parcel of human life at work and home.
Aayush Kumar Gupta is the founder and creator of ExploringBits, a website dedicated to providing useful content for people passionate about Engineering and Technology. Aayush has completed his Bachelor of Technology (Computer Science & Engineering) from 2018-2022. From July 2022, Aayush has been working as a full-time Devops Engineer.