Why monitor is a output device???

Question

As we all know, monitor is an output device. But i still can't imagine why it is not an input device. Its like this. Can you give a single command to your PC without a monitor? Of course you can, but it is not like we are going to write a whole document and print it without a seeing it! I mean, when it comes to computers, we can't do a single thing without a monitor. It can be a monitor of any sort. Of course you may say, we are able to see what we are doing, so that is why it is a output device.

Go to wikipedia and search for input device. "An input device is any peripheral used to provide data and control signals to an information processing system" See the meaning? Go down that page and see the classifications if you want more.

So what is that? Monitor can be both an input as well as a output device. So if anybody say it is only a output device, i take it, but it is insanely difficult for me to believe it.

Dear computer experts out there! You are the guys who are brilliant than me. For instance i take your word for it, and agree that monitor is a output device. But can you explain me with solid proof, why is it so!

(I had to ask this question because it has been a real headache for me lately. Please! need help.)

Answer 1

"Input" and "output" here have a simpler meaning than the one you're envisioning for them.  They refer not to the overall operation as done by a human being, but only to the data transfer into or out of the computer.  The monitor sends nothing into the computer, and the keyboard receives nothing from it, hence the terms output device for the first and input device for the second.

A disk, on the other hand, does both, and so is an input/output device.

Hope that clarifies things.

Answer 2

A Screen maybe an input aswell as an output if you have touch screen capability.

Answer 3

a monitor is an output device because you cannot give the computer any commands with it, like you can with mice and keyboards.  There is one contingency, however.  If you have a touch-screen monitor, then it is an input device, because you are interacting with the computer with it.

Answer 4

A monitor is an output device because it does what your computer tells it to do... it does NOT tell the computer to do anything, nor does it receive any input from the computer user, so it is not an input device.

Whether you can or cannot use a computer without a monitor is irrelevant.

Answer 5

See the definition "An input device is any peripheral used to provide data and control signals to an information processing system".

As you said that, it is an input device also. So if it is an input device, please tell me whether you can input data using only monitors (without using keybord/mouse etc.) to your system?

It is a display device. Whatever you input to the computer, that is directed to the intended destination as well as to the monitor in order inform the user what he has fed to the system.  

Answer 6

You don't use the monitor to tell the computer anything.

It tells you things.

You might not know what you want to tell the computer without the monitor, but that doesn't mean it gives input to the computer.