This blog article will be about the social impact of IT on society. The Effects of ICT lens looks at how our lives have been changed, for better and for worse, by the impact of ICT. It includes both positive effects and negative effects and looks at how individual’s organizations and society are affected.
IT has had a huge impact on society. I am going to be covering a few of the areas that it has impacted. These include
¨ Communication
¨ Disabled users
Disabled users
There are both positive and negative effects of ICT on people with disabilities. Some positive effects are there is better access to information, improvement of communication and security through encryption of information. Information and communication technology can support learners with physical disabilities by enabling them to access the curriculum along with their class mates. People can apply for job and do their job at home if they are unable to move from home. ICT help them to organize their life by doing shopping, organize bank account or pay bills. They can also use video conference to meet new friends or communicate with other people.
Some of the negative effects are reduced personal interactions and reduced physical activities. Also they cannot use their full potential, even though there are a lot of peripherals and software packages, there is still a lot that they are missing out on. Another thing is that It is very expensive to get all of the software and peripherals to enable a child/physically disabled person to easy mobile access to the internet and different types of communication.
Employment
IT is more likely to have changed someone's work rather than led to them losing their job. The development of information technology has led to many new jobs such as computer technicians, programmers, web designers and systems analysts. People in certain professions have had to be retrained to make use of modern technology:
Þ Secretaries now use word processors and not typewriters.
Þ Travel agents book holidays by computer, not by phone or letter.
Þ Telephone banking has meant that many bank staff now works by phone in front of a computer, instead of being in a branch, behind a counter.
Þ De-skilling has taken place. Some jobs which needed a high level of skill in the past can now are done more easily. For example, print workers today can use special software to lay out their work.
Þ Designers now use programs rather than pencil and paper on a drawing board.
IT has a negative impact on employment because it can increase unemployment, for example:
Þ Computer-controlled warehouses need only a handful of staff to operate them.
Þ Computer-controlled robots are now common on production lines, replacing human workers.
Þ The old skills of workers in the printing industry are now out-of-date.
Þ Some jobs have disappeared as they can now be done automatically, eg marking multiple choice exam papers
Þ Multiple workers being replaced by a smaller number who are able to do the same amount of work. e.g. A worker on a supermarket checkout can serve more customers per hour if a bar-code scanner linked to a computerized till is used to detect goods instead of the worker having to enter the item and price manually
Communication
The positive impact of IT on communication:
A.) Faster communication speed
Þ In the past, it took a long time for any news or messages to be sent. Now with the internet, news or messages are sent via e-mail to friends, business partner or anyone efficiently.
Þ With the capability of bandwidth, broadband and connection speed on the internet, any information can travel fast at an instant. It saves time and is inexpensive
B.) Lower Communication Cost
Þ Using the internet is cost-effective than the other mode of communication than the other mode of communication such as telephone, mailing or Korea Service. It allows people to have access to large amounts of data at a very low cost.
Þ With the internet we do not have to pay for any basic services provided by the internet. Furthermore, the cost of connection to the internet is relatively cheap.
C.) Paperless environment
Þ ICT technology has created the term paperless environment. This term means information can be stored and retrieved through the digital medium instead of paper. Online communication via email, online chat and instant messages also helps in creating the paperless environment.
D.) Effective Sharing of Information
Þ People can share and exchange opinions, news and information through discussion groups, mailing list and forums on the internet. This enable knowledge sharing which will contribute to the development of knowledge based society
The negative impact:
A.) Social problems
Þ Nowadays, people tend to choose online communication rather than having real time conversations. People tend to become more individualistic and introvert theft, hacking, pornography and online gambling. This will result in moral decadent and generate threat to the society.
B.) Health Problems
Þ A computer may harm the user if they use it if they use it for long hours frequently.
Þ Computers users are also exposed to bad posture, eyestrain, physical and mental stress.
Þ In order to solve the health problems, an ergonomic chair can reduced back strain and a screen filter is to minimize eyestrain.
Conclusion
In this article I have looked at the social impact of IT on society. In my opinion IT had a massive impact on modern society. With each area that I have looked at it has affected other areas of society. I discover that IT can affect our society in both positive and negative way.
