Information Technology and Society

Posted: November 29th, 2013

Name:

Course:

Lecturer:

Date:

Information Technology and Society

            Technology has come a long way to what people know today. It has developed gradually until the past decade with the advent of the World Wide Web in the past two decades. The 2000s decade has been described as the information age, where people have access to knowledge a button away. Currently, accessing any information requires touching or hitting a few buttons from anywhere using electronic devices including Smartphone. The advent of social networks over the internet has revolutionized the way people communicate and interact with others. People no longer need to be together physically to share information about them selves or to initiate a relationship. Information can be exchanged from anywhere. Thus, the society has become permanently connected. Above all, the internet has created an opportunity for everybody to have access to information. Unlike in the previous eras when people thrived for knowledge, people are drawing in knowledge. This developed has come to help people in any ways such as socializing, accessing information and communicating.

The rise of social networking sites have changed the way people interact and socialize. People have used these sites such as Facebook and twitter to stay close to each other. However, it has raised issue about privacy and social interaction, where people no longer call to find out about each other. Rather, people check each other’s status on these sites. With their integration into most of the electronic devices including cell phones, people are always walking around interacting with others who might be around the globe. This has also raised an issue of whether it has changed the way people communicate for the better or for the worse considering it allows anonymity that lets people develop other personalities.

The internet provides false security for the users. For instance, due to the anonymity effect of the internet, people can act with different personalities. For instance, very introverted people who are shy of talking freely with others might say anything over the internet. From a personal experience, I have been in the same situation. Additionally, due to this ability of anonymity, the internet has equalized everybody since it does not recognize personality or even class. Thus, anybody can interact with any person one wishes, which was not possible before. For instance, celebrities are interacting with their funs through the social networking sites. This has in turn brought people closer. However, People are not as close as they think using the internet and the social sites. People might have hundreds of friends on these sites. In reality, they might only talk to a few regularly, those that they know and meet. Thus, it has created a false sense of closeness, where people may even talk to strangers they do not know.

The internet has revolutionized the way people interact with others around them and even people far away. This does not hinder people’s ability to socialize. Rather, it changes the way they socialize. Before the advent of the internet, meeting new friends and people required physical meeting in order to initiate a relationship. With the current development of technology, people can interact to people across the globe through texts and chats. Earlier, people had to meet to exchange address. With the internet, one can get addresses as easy as pressing a button. Despite the advantages of the internet, people need be careful to avoid addiction, which is a current emerging situation currently, since it has the capability of changing how people interact.

Conclusively, the development of the information technology in the past decade has been driven by the internet, with the capability of allowing people to interact virtually effortlessly. This has brought several issues including offering false security that allows people to develop different personalities and inhibiting privacy. In addition, people have moved from thriving to acquiring knowledge to drawing in it to access of information from all over the world. The way people communicate has changed, where one can see people all over streets communicating with other people using the cell phones that have social interaction capabilities. Thus, technology has revolutionized the way people communicate, interact and socialize. However, if people over rely on it, it might completely change the way people function through changing norms of interacting with the society.