How IT has changed the way we communicate in the last 50 years?

Introduction

I am required to create a word processed report that describes the impact developments in IT have had on individuals, communities and society as a whole. Many of the things we take for granted in our everyday lives now rely on IT systems. I will consider the impact that this has on our lives and try to find out how we might have done things before these developments. I will use examples of images to illustrate these.

The impact of IT on Individuals

Music

Before technology developed to how we know it today, the common way to buy and listen to music, was to purchase vinyl records or tapes to play on a dedicated music device which was a record deck or tape recorder.

Nowadays people can download and stream music onto their phones, tablets, laptops or desktops. This has been possible because of the development of the internet. You also have unlimited storage using clouds (External Memory) or local memory (Internal Memory). Technical advancements have produced better battery life for devices. This has made all devices portable.

You can easily listen to music anywhere at any time.  The disadvantage about our present technology is that it is very simple to download music illegally which prevents the original artist earning money and creating more albums.

Communicating with Friends and Family

Before computers, phones, tablets and other forms of communication technology, people contacted their family, friends and work colleagues or employers in person. They could also contact them on a land-line or send a hand written letter via post.

Nowadays it is easy for you to keep in touch with family, friends and work via text messages, phone calls, emails or social messaging.  It is also easy to contact anyone, anywhere in the world.

This has become possible because of wireless technology.

Study

Studying nowadays is easier for both students and teachers. By using modern technology, work can now be handled via e-mail instead of hard copies. This makes it easier for teachers and students, this also allows students to work during breaks and home easily.

The advantage of studying using the internet is that you can aquire information online easier. You can get help at any time via e-mails. You can work from home or in your spare time by accessing you work from anywhere. Staff can obtain and organize student’s work; this makes the process much easier to mark than wasting time to chase the student to get work.

The disadvantage to studying using the internet is that students can use copy and paste too much. They can also become distracted easier so this can prevent them from working. Students would have to be monitored so this involves a teacher spending time monitoring the student’s screens. You would also need staff that have a great understanding of ICT.

Shopping

It is now possible to shop entirely online for things like your groceries, clothing and appliances and have them delivered to your door without you having to leave your home.

It is no longer necessary to travel to a store and purchase your goods.

The advantage of shopping online is that it is quick and easy to browse or shop online. Also the cost could be a lot cheaper to order online than going to an actual store. The shopping online process saves a lot of time.

Shopping online can cause laziness and people could become anti-social. This could also lead to lack of exercise.

Socialising

As technology has advanced, the way we socialise has changed a lot in 10 years. It is very easy for you to communicate with your family, friends and anyone in the world. You can easily meet new people online.

There are a lot of great advantages of socialising like staying in touch with your family no matter where you are. You can meet amazing, wonderful people online so much easier and without having to travel just to meet new people or signing up to new groups. You can stay in touch more easily without having to send a letter or give them a call on landline or phone box.

Even though there are plenty of advantages, there are plenty of disadvantages too, like lack of exercise for instance. People could possibly stay in the house for long periods of time which could prevent them from getting enough exercise or make them less active.

There is a big risk of cyber bullying and strangers can easily find information about you.

Work

More jobs these days are relying heavily on technology. Shops use technology to communicate with other branches and for tills. It is much more crucial for an average worker to have a solid understanding of technology and how to use it effectively.

Present technology allows businesses or companies to communicate quickly and easily with other employees or colleagues and also with their customers.  Present technology also helps employers complete their work more efficiently or allow colleagues to share work with others. Present technology allows businesses or companies to create more jobs such as:

•  IT Consultants
• IT Software Engineers

The disadvantage of present technology in work is that it is much more difficult for people with no understanding of IT to find work. A lot of people could lose their jobs as they can be replaced by computers to save money for the business or company.

Government

The advancement of technology could allow governments to use digital voting systems, warn citizens with any law changes or important notices. Governments can stay in touch with the citizens much easier to get messages across.

Governments can use technology to create better, stronger and quicker defense. The impact on defense capabilities is much higher because the government has a great vision of the country, greater knowledge of the country and others out there. Governments can communicate with other governments to share ideas.

There can be many disadvantages though like if the government decides to use digital voting systems it maybe hacked and the results could be gone or changed. The country could be useless when there is a blackout or a power cut. Changing the government to use present or future technology may result less jobs for people.

Commercial Businesses

Commercial businesses have changed a lot as computer technology advanced, for example: shopping online, banking online and advertising your business online. All these points have a big effect on commercial businesses because of how cheap and easy the process is. You could even work anywhere in the world and still do good for your commercial business if you were not there, this is possible because nowadays you can set tasks for your employees and even order in your business goods without even being there!
If a customer had a question about a product or needed to contact to your store, you can simply reply using your phone, tablet or laptop in a matter of seconds. You can create websites to create an effective commercial business to sell/buy goods.
You can create surveys for your costumers for them to fill in their own time to find out what they would or don’t like about your business to make your business much better.
You can collect information stored in databases to access customer, staff, products and other information that you may need.

News and Media Organisations

News and media organization has changed a lot with technology because they can now just collect information from the internet and create news reports with video footage. It now can be streamed live on television or online.
Newspapers now contain images and can be created so much easier using today’s technology such as a word processing software.
Media organizations rely on technology because of advertisements and a lot of media is usually online. News and media organizations can be up 24/7.
The audience is aimed to everyone and audience can access news from anywhere in the world anytime. Audience can also see what’s happening in other countries as well.

Educational Institutions

The impact of technology with education has made it possible to teach so much easier. Students can access on-line resources and probably learn a lot more than reading from a book. Using technology can help improve accessibility for teachers and students to access their work.
The lecturer can simply display tasks on a smart board and present the task much easier than explaining on a white board. You can also give information to the student so much easier than printing off a paper and giving to the student and then finding out that the information was not useful. The electronic method may save more paper and ink, this works out to be a lot cheaper for the organization.

Conclusion

In my conclusion I would say it is quite obvious that present technology has created a huge impact in world in 50 years. I also believe that future technology would create an even larger impact in 50 year or less. I believe that technology would probably be the best thing that has happened to us. Technology has also made us and is making us less active which could make us very overweight in the future. Technology could save lives though, the way technology is going and it gives us an ability to learn more in science. Technology has given us a very high knowledge of life than 50 years ago. You can teach your children so much quicker with technology than you probably would try to explain the facts. Your government could but better defenses up with technology.