Impact of Technology on Society Essay Sample

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Introduction

Every new engineering has had its impact on society. The wheel gave mobility. facilitated trade and commercialism and increased the country of activity of human existences taking to cultural interactions and assimilation. sharing of cognition and finally to the gradual development of society. The steam engine. patented by James Watt in 1769. had a profound impact on society. It resulted in an unprecedented growing of the British economic system. In many ways. steam is considered to hold driven the British Empire to the zenith of its power and the universe towards the Industrial Revolution which transformed society from its medieval to its modern construction. Technological progresss are straight relative to economic prosperity and addition in the comfort degree of the manner of life of people. Improvement in medical engineerings consequences in the addition in the mean life spans of people and decrease in baby and child mortality rates. Every technological invention does non merely convey economic prosperity and convenience in the life of people. but besides Usshers in immense alterations in the operation of society itself.

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In recent times Information and Communication Technology ( ICT ) has transformed society as ne’er before. ICT is an all-pervasive scientific field that has revolutionized the manner people live. the manner they work and even the manner they relax. drama and have fun. ICT has pervaded all walks of life and work. ICT has. in fact. go an built-in and indispensable portion of life. The computing machine and communicating engineering. the coming of the digital age. has put life on the fast path. cutting down on procedure clip. conveying in greater efficiency and guaranting higher dependability. ICT has cut across societal and economic barriers to make its benefits to the poorest of the hapless and the most backward and developing. In less than a one-fourth of a century. ICT has changed the universe for the better. There can be no uncertainty that ICT is the individual most of import engineering field in the universe today.

This paper seeks to analyze the impact of engineering on society taking Information and Communication Technology ( ICT ) as a relevant and premier illustration of a society-transforming engineering in the modern universe.

ICT is derived from the original term Information Technology ( IT ) which is defined by the Information Technology Association of America as:

“The survey. design. development. execution. support or direction of computer-based information systems. peculiarly package applications and computing machine hardware. In short. IT deals with the usage of electronic computing machines and computing machine package to change over. shop. protect. procedure. transmit and recover information. firmly. ” ( Wikipedia )

Information Technology was hence computing machine and communicating engineerings put together. The term ‘Communication Technology’ here refers to communicating achieved through computing machines either in the signifier of Local Area Networks ( LAN ) . Wide Area Networks ( WAN ) or through computer-based satellite-communication webs.

As IT found wider pertinence and range. and as more and more linear signals began to be converted to digital. a whole new scope of common appliances of communicating engineerings such as the telephone and the telecasting fell within the scope of IT. IT itself could no longer be merely restricted to Information Technology and had to be re-christened Information and Communication Technology ( ICT ) by the incorporation of the omnipresent ‘Communications’ into its terminology. more so because of the broad scope of multimedia applications that IT lend itself to.

ICT is credited to hold ushered in the ‘Digital Era’ . A whole new civilization – planetary in perspective – the ICT Culture has swept across the universe. The Internet and the World Wide Web ( WWW ) or the Web. which are themselves offsprings of ICT. have carried this new scientific discipline practically to every nook and corner of the universe. ICT has been a planetary phenomenon in the existent sense of the term because of its great easiness of pertinence. ICT has shrunk distances and transformed the universe into a Global Village. and ushered in globalisation. . e-commerce has turned the universe into a individual market topographic point which both purchasers and Sellerss can easy entree through the Internet and the Web.

The overall societal and economic impacts of ICT can be gauged from the new types of societal and economic organisations and establishments that it has fostered and from the attacks to societal and political development that have been made possible by the application of ICT.

Impact of Information and Communication Technology on Society: A instance survey

A scientific discipline that pervades about every walk of life is bound to hold societal branchings. The community Information Centre ( CIC ) undertaking in the underdeveloped state of India serves as a really good illustration. Under this undertaking. the Government of India had set up 487 Community Information Centers in the distant north-eastern portion of the state – a part that had lagged behind the remainder of the state in development due to its tough geographical terrain and the attendant unavailability. and deficiency of natural stuffs and resources for the development of conventional industries. Each of the CICs were equipped with the latest in ICT substructure consisting computing machine systems and peripherals such as pressmans and scanners. power back-up systems such as generator sets and Uninterrupted Power Supply ( UPS ) systems and were provided web connectivity through satellite-based Very Small Aperture Terminals ( VSATs ) . The CICs opened up the whole universe for the hitherto stray people of the part. In their five old ages of being the CICs have achieved important popularity. They started with carry oning developing plans on ICT use for the people. Once the people came to cognize how to use assorted ICT installations and services. they began flocking to the CICs. They began to interact with people from other parts of India. they began merchandising on the Internet. and they contacted reputed medical establishments in assorted other parts of India for intervention of their complaints. Slowly but certainly. a span was built between this about confused portion of the state and what is known as the ‘mainstream’ India. ( CIC Website )

The authorities. on its portion. has begun to take new enterprises in presenting Government-to-Citizen ( G2C ) services to the people of the part through the CICs. The CICs have besides started to work as effectual e-Governance bringing nodes. Assorted authorities services such as issue of land paperss. decease and birth certifications. payment of revenue enhancements. etc. are now being provided through the CICs. The CICs have besides become centres of propensity and instruction.

ICT services such as tele-broadcasting make it possible for survey classs and categories to be delivered unrecorded over the web. Leading educational establishments of the state are running both short and long-run online classs on different topics over the CIC web. Students are even looking for on-line scrutinies right from the CICs. Al these have gone a long manner in conveying about societal alteration in the societies of the dominantly tribal part. Features of globalisation. in their very nascent phases. are already seeable in the part. The CIC experiment has been so successful in the state that it has been extended to other similar parts.

From the above illustration it is clear that the ICT has had profound impact on the interaction degree and scope. instruction. wellness. agribusiness. employment. entree to information and cognition and on the society as a whole. The societal impact of ICT can be classified into two classs. On one manus. ICT can be used to back up people and present services and subsidies. and on the other manus ICT have the possible to authorise people’s engagement in the economic. societal. political and cultural kingdom. The first mechanism refers to benefits deducing from the ability to pull on ICT mediated interaction with authorities and public services. while the 2nd mechanism is about benefits deducing from the ability to utilize ICT. whether in a productive procedure. i. e. at work. or in engagement in societal. political and cultural life. ( Husing 27 ) .

ICT can therefore heighten societal position or bridge societal divides in the undermentioned ways:

Building of societal communities and webs assumes high importance in the societal context. The construct of community itself has undergone alterations due to the coming of ICT. Social webs and geographically distributed communities are now more the order of the twenty-four hours. Social webs are the foundation of personal and concern interaction. They define who people communicate with and how. Wellmanet Al.argue that societal webs are altering in current society. This transmutation follows revolutions in engineering that have resulted in a move from dumbly knit and tightly-bound webs ( with geographic ties ) to sparsely-knit and loosely-bound webs. Underliing this displacement is the nature of the World Wide Web itself as a web of webs. These alterations have huge deductions for how people relate to each other and to establishments. ( Discussion Paper 28 )

Literature on Development Theory ( Cummings. Heeks & A ; Huysman 4 -5 ) defines four types of ICT enabled communities:

The societal potency of ICT was realized every bit early as 1999. In a paper titled A Strategic Framework for the Information Economy. Canberra. the National Office for the Information Economy ( NOIE ) had commented on the societal deductions of increased connectivity therefore:

“Perhaps the most exciting characteristic of this increased connectivity is its possible to move as a accelerator for greater societal interaction and community engagement. Online engineerings can hold a direct function in heightening community good being. They can supply better links across the local community while at the same clip enabling entree to wider national and international resources. Existing societal substructure – schools. infirmaries. public libraries. local councils – can be strengthened. Online capacity can assist to excite and reinvigorate both local communities and communities of involvement. ” ( NOIE )

When the impact of steam is compared with that of ICT. it is found that even by the late ninetiess. ICT’s one-year impact had been approximately four times stronger than the one-year impact of steam when it was at its extremum. ( Crafts ) . The power of ICT as an agent of societal alteration is infinite. Nevertheless as the universe surges in front siting on the ICT moving ridge. there could be possible radioactive dusts in the signifier of negative impacts. Globalisation could take to economic development by the powerful ; it could besides ensue in the pass overing out of valuable single socio-cultural individualities. A universe without assortment would be a really dull one so. However. there is no contending the claim that the drive to the hereafter is powered by ICT. ICT will model the societal. economical. cultural and political form of the hereafter. Technology will. as ever. play the function of the premier mover of social alterations.

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