Computing technologies, like most other forms of technology, are not socially neutral. They affect and are themselves affected by society. Computers have changed the way people relate to one another and their living environment, as well as how humans organize their work, their communities, and their time. Society, in turn, has influenced the development of computers through the needs people have for processing information. The study of these relationships has come to be known as "social informatics."

Computing technology has evolved as a means of solving specific problems in human society. The earliest kinds of computational devices were the mechanical calculators developed by Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) in 1645 and Gottfried Leibniz (1646–1716) in 1694 for solving the navigational and scientific problems that began to arise as Europe entered a new and heightened period of scientific development and international commerce. In 1801 Joseph-Marie Jacquard (1752–1834) invented perhaps the first type of...