How Society Has Been Impacted by the Increased Availability of Electronic Information free essay sample

How society has been impacted by the increased availability of electronic information Society has been impacted by the increased availability of electronic information in a number of different ways. I am going to talk about how the availability of information affects me and my family, also how it affects society in general and the average individual and to conclude I will talk about individuals and the effect on those who do not have access to IT. Electronic information is available to us via Smartphones, PC’s, PDA’s, Tablets and Laptop’s. There are also advantages and disadvantages of the increased availability of electronic information. The increased availability of electronic information affects me and my family greatly in our day to day activities, this has had a major impact on my life over the past few years in particular, for example I access a variety of different screen-based documents such as, e-mails, text messages, internet web pages, television etc. We will write a custom essay sample on How Society Has Been Impacted by the Increased Availability of Electronic Information or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The decrease of paper-based documents has been extremely rapid with me and parents, with my parents accessing work material over the internet rather than being handed a paper based report. This has also impacted me as I use text messages to speak with my parents, family and friends, making it efficient for me to talk to them on the go and quickly. This saves me the journey of having to walk to friends or families houses, although these mobile phones do run on a portable battery, these are not always the most efficient making people unavailable, which is a disadvantage to this. Also another mutual thing that has affected me and parents greatly is the way that we search information; years ago I would simply walk to the library and borrow a textbook, or enquire with my parents or teachers about certain information. Now I have unlimited access to a computer with various different search engines such as; Google, Yahoo, Ask Jeeves etc. I can search for whatever information that I seek, and I have search criteria if I choose to use it, such as filtering for the most up to date information and certain words that should not be found. Making this extremely efficient and saves me a whole of time compared to the method of walking to the library, my parents also use this process daily. I also use the internet frequently, as it has a variety of different uses such as checking movie times, allowing you to plan ahead, saving you time, and being able to make family decisions. Allowing you to shop online, making the shopping process a whole lot smoother and requiring less effort, and allowing you to do much more in a shorter space of time. The Internet also has a variety of different uses, such as checking movie times, allowing you to plan ahead, saving you time. Allowing you to shop online, making the shopping process a whole lot smoother and requiring less effort, and allowing you to go see much more that you would in a shorter space of time. Typing work out, which is extremely useful as you now have to do work multiple times, this allows you to always have a neat edge to your work and saves you time as you would have to write it out numerous times. There are also disadvantages though with electronic software, such as the price of the work, it is extremely expensive, and you often have to pay on-going subscriptions for internet. Computers have a reputation of failing, and having numerous problems, meaning work can be lost and can cause frustration, and the numerous viruses that can be found on the internet, are always a burden, which are well hidden in programs making them hard to spot, nevertheless the increases in the availability of information have benefited me and my family and we are immensely dependent upon this. The availability of information affects society in general massively also, many people around the world, use the internet to keep in contact with others from around the world via e-mail etc. this is much cheaper and time-efficient than sending a letter. People also want to keep up to date which the TV serves an excellent cause, by having numerous programs, the TV also serves different purposes, by providing entertainment, with a variety of different television programs, the age groups of these ranges from 0-6 months to 90+, and this is expensive though so it is not accessible to everyone. Society also uses the internet and TV to keep up with what is happening around the world and to have instant access to information, which is not provided in newspapers as information is a day behind, this is also allows people to plan ahead, e. g. London bombings takes place and citizens get information from internet and avoid public transport. Society also use online banking which saves people from having to go to the bank to pay bills, get bank statements (which only come once a month via paper-based documents) companies now also encourage people to pay bills via electronic ethods, by making it cheaper in comparison to cheques and money in hand methods. Society also use the internet for entertainment methods such as ‘iPlayer and 40D’ this allows people to catch up with favourite programs after they have been shown on television, this impacts society greatly as it is free and allows people to make plans during favourite television programs and documentaries. Also many companies do not allow you to apply for jobs via handing in a paper-based Curriculum –Vitae document and completing a job application, companies tell you to apply online, this making it essential to have a computer or access to a computer. Also travel information is now available on the Internet, ranging from trains, buses to planes. Allowing society to go onto the respective websites and structure your journey letting you find the quickest way to get to the desired destinations of choice and for planes letting you check in a day early, saving you time when you get to the airport. Another major impact that this has on society is the police database, which keeps all of our records, this also linking in with mobile phones, making it quicker for people to call the police in emergency, through a 911, 999 or other emergency contact number. With most of society also relying on e-mails for many job instructions to be given for work also. Many public services organisations also use the website to display information such as the Local and National Government on www. directgov. org. NHS also has features to allow you to self-diagnose symptoms, making this quicker for everyone, and stops time wasting, and all banks now allowing you to bank online, saving you masses of time. Of course there are disadvantages, such as personal details being hacked from pcs whilst banking, and the price of computers and how much broadband costs monthly. There is an immense impact of electronic communications on organisations, many different companies use electronic communications in their business relying less on paper based documents as we advance into the future. Comet is a prime example of a business relying less on the paper-based documents, they refuse to accept paper-based documents when someone is applying for a job, they insist on people using the online job resource. They also send all instructions for their companies via e-mail whilst before this was either typed out and printed out and distributed to each member, making the new method, cheaper and quicker. Schools also are impacted greatly by the impact of increased electronic communications, my school uses a VLE (virtual learning environment) to have lessons structured and so that they are always available, from where ever you are as long as you have an Internet connection. These are used at most schools now. Public services organisations are also impacted by the increased availability of electronic information; the government introduced the ‘Website Public Services Information (2005)’ stating that all public services organisation had to put their databases on the World Wide Web. The NHS has a self – diagnosis symptom program on their website. This makes it easier for people to see what is wrong with them, resulting in less emergency calls. Also UCAS who have the whole applying process for universities online, cutting out paper-based documents. Making it quicker for universities in accepting and declining and for students also in finding out the courses and universities they are interested in. There are people that do not want to have to electronic information such as old age pensioners, certain religious groups, and people with old fashioned values, those who do not know how to use computers, those who have security fears, those who feel it is impersonal and those who feel that electronic information is an invasion of privacy. The availability of information also affects people that do not want to have electronic information greatly also, as they lose out on many things such as job applications as many companies now do all the applications online and not on the web. They are also out of knowing of what is happening, constantly waiting for the newspaper or magazines. It is much harder to function in this society, as we are dependent on electronic information. They will have to have a much longer process in doing many things, such as finding jobs; they are also limited to certain jobs where electronic information is not required, which could see as a major problem in this economic downfall. They are also forced to rely on their judgement a lot, with not being able to check travel information etc. this adding extra time onto their journey. They will also be caught up by natural events such as snow; they will not be able to communicate with others because they cannot get post sent whilst e-mail would be sent. Those who do not have access, because they simply cannot, are impacted by the increased availability of electronic information are also affected, these are people that are old age pensioners, low income families, remote 3rd countries, prisoners and those that are in areas of the United Kingdom with no connectivity. Some of these people have had their problems tackled by places such as libraries, schools and Internet cafes. Giving them Internet access for most of the year, but they are also have holiday periods when they are not open, giving them no Internet access. They are already adding extra time to their journey by having to go to one of these destinations that have Internet. Those in areas that have no broadband activity, are worse off as the whole area will not have any sort of broadband and will have to travel further to receive internet. The ‘digital divide’, describes the fact that the world can be divided into people who do and people who don’t have access to and the capability to use – modern information technology, such as the telephone, television or the Internet. There are plans to end Africa’s digital divide, by Intel’s chairman Craig Barrett. This will take long for this to happen, so there is still a major impact on those in remote Africa. I have concluded that the increased availability of electronic information has impacted everyone greatly whether you use it or not, as it may limit you if you do not use it, or may allow you to do process’ faster. You are impacted by the increased availability of electronic information if you utilise the resources that are available to you, whilst if you do not, there is extra hassle to do certain activities. Making it essential to have either a computer with a broadband connection.