<div class="imagecaption alignLeft"> <img src="https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/computerweekly/CW-60-anniversary-logo-white-400px.jpg" alt="Computer Weekly 60th anniversary logo" width="226" height="117"> </div> <p><i>On 22 September 2026, Computer Weekly turns 60. To mark the milestone, we asked some of our friends - experts, parliamentarians, IT leaders and suppliers - for their perspectives on how tech has changed their lives over six decades. What's changed the most for you since then?</i></p> <p>"I think there might be something in this computer malarkey," my mother said, as we approached my GCSE choices.</p> <p>Looking back, it was clearly a conversation my parents had after my school parents' evening, when Mum heard about the <a href="https://www.computerweekly.com/news/366648784/Number-of-girls-choosing-GCSE-computing-drops-for-second-year-in-a-row">GCSE options on offer</a>. Information technology GCSE was the new kid on the block and the first of its kind at my school. Its announcement received a mixed reception and I would love to have heard the conversation that followed when Mum and Dad got home.</p> <p>I was deep in my teenage years, convinced I was pulling off a black wardrobe complete with gothic scarves while declaring my love for Guns N’ Roses and Metallica. Yet somehow, between them, my parents gently nudged me towards a future none of us could really see. A life shaped by this thing called computing.</p> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Micro moments"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Micro moments</h2> <p>What stays with me most are the micro moments.</p> <p>One was the time we upgraded our BBC computer. Dad and I assembled what felt like a piece of technology from the future. He had bought me a couple of games, <i>The 7th Guest</i> and <i>Day of the Tentacle</i>. They made such an impression, I still have the boxes and discs carefully stored away today.</p> <p>Going from a green screen to computer graphics felt nothing short of magical. We could hardly believe what we were seeing, then the music boomed out of these new speakers as if we had stepped into a live concert. Our faces lit up with a mixture of excitement and disbelief. I was jumping up and down while Dad, naturally, remained just a little more composed. We hurried off to fetch Mum so she could see this impossibly advanced machine.</p> <p>The micro moments kept coming. Learning Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V at work was a revelation. A colleague shared their newfound expertise and suddenly the world seemed to change in an instant. We genuinely paused at our desks to marvel at what this simple shortcut could do. It sounds ridiculous now but at the time we kept giggling for days, our lives had just become that little bit simpler.</p> <blockquote> <div class="imagecaption alignLeft"> <img src="https://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/rms/computerweekly/Avril-Chester-LinkedIn.jpg" alt="Photo of Avril Chester" width="160" height="160"> </div> <p><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong><span style="color: #34495e;">“Technology may change our world but its secret power is its ability to bring people together. Whether those moments leave us feeling amazed, confused, excited, challenged or occasionally completely baffled, the connections and memories they create are bigger than the technology itself”</span></strong></span></p> <p><span style="color: #34495e;"><em>Avril Chester</em></span></p> </blockquote> <p>Years later came a very different kind of moment. Less revelation, more confusion. Suddenly everyone seemed to be talking in hashtags. What on earth was this # symbol doing in conversations? And why was I the only one who seemed not to get it? Tentatively, I posted my first tweet and first LinkedIn update, convinced I was about to break some unwritten rule of the internet. Nothing happened. Nobody cared. Yet I still checked obsessively for hours afterwards.</p> <p>Technology evokes emotion. One moment it makes you feel brilliantly clever, the next completely out of your depth.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Life changing"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Life changing</h2> <p>At 37, I experienced a life-changing event. The kind that rips up the tracks beneath you with no obvious route forward. As I slowly began to emerge, beyond the support of immediate family and friends, a number of other voices started offering advice. Take it easy now. Let go of your ambitions. Walk away from your career and do something else.</p> <p>It wasn't just one voice. If I'm honest, I started to believe them. Then through social media, I met someone further along a remarkably similar journey. He had experienced even greater disruption and was thriving in his career. We connected, he became a mentor and he gave me perhaps the most valuable advice of my professional life, “Don't listen. Do your thing”.</p> <p>With renewed confidence that I could still have a career, I dusted myself off and started attending conferences again, learning how technology had evolved and building new connections. I'd been away for a year but I knew I still had something to contribute. I waved goodbye to my parents once more after returning home to rebuild - with more scarves, this time in brighter colours - determined not to become a cliché who found purpose in adversity. Naturally, that's exactly what happened.</p> <p>From one inspirational connection on social media, I forged ahead, eventually becoming a founder and chief technology officer. Imagine that - squeaky, high-pitched-voice me, learning to encourage teams, lead departments and occasionally put out fires (literally, in a datacentre).</p> <p>What fascinates me isn't the technology itself but what it can achieve. How can we use it to improve lives? Connect people to the information and services they need? Design with the whole of society in mind and avoid leaving people behind?</p> <p>Some of my best memories are the workshops and hackathons (or heffalumps as Mum calls them). A room full of inspired talent driving towards a common goal, exploring different routes and possibilities together, occasionally grabbing a piece of now very cold pizza because we were too busy creating to stop. The best bits are us.</p> </section> <section class="section main-article-chapter" data-menu-title="Secret powers"> <h2 class="section-title"><i class="icon" data-icon="1"></i>Secret powers</h2> <p>Technology may change our world but its secret power is its ability to bring people together. Whether those moments leave us feeling amazed, confused, excited, challenged or occasionally completely baffled, the connections and memories they create are bigger than the technology itself.</p> <p>That's why I struggle to choose one defining moment, I feel incredibly fortunate to have so many.</p> <p>As we learn to navigate a new world, <a href="https://www.computerweekly.com/essentialguide/CW60-How-technology-has-changed-our-lives-over-60-years">Computer Weekly has once again hit on the most important story as it celebrates its 60th anniversary</a>. While technology provides the backdrop, it's the people, conversations and shared experiences around it that bring it to life.</p> <p>It'll be fascinating to see what memories are made next in an AI world. My parents were right - shh, don't tell them that. There really is something in this computer malarkey.</p> <p><i>Avril Chester is chief operating officer at AI venture studio Ainad, co-founder of The Human Intelligence Circle, lead author of </i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Leading-Humanity-World-Avril-Chester/dp/1807691799">Leading with humanity in an AI world</a><i>, founder of Cancer Central, and former CTO at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.</i></p> <div class="extra-info"> <div class="extra-info-inner"> <h3 class="splash-heading">Read all of Computer Weekly's 60th anniversary essays</h3> <p>Technology is changing the way we live and work like never before – touching people’s lives every day, opening up new opportunities and creating new challenges.</p> <p>So for our 60<sup>th</sup> anniversary, we wanted to reflect on the human stories of how the digital revolution has changed the lives of some of the key leaders and influencers in tech today. Read our full collection of essays, which offers a unique set of insights and perspectives into the changes we have seen during Computer Weekly's first 60 years.</p> <h2><a href="https://www.computerweekly.com/essentialguide/CW60-How-technology-has-changed-our-lives-over-60-years">CW@60 - How technology has changed our lives over 60 years</a></h2> </div> </div> </section>
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