Information Technology and Contemporary Social Change - Essay Example

Information Technology and Contemporary Social Change 27 December, 2006 Information Technology and Contemporary Social Change 1. How does Information Technology determine social change In the first half of 1900, it was obvious that industrial advances had brought about big business growth which, in turn, called for an increase in transportation and communication. The Industrial Revolution had peaked in England, and satellite businesses and an expanding need for merchants had created a middle class between the upper and lower classes that dominated the 18th and 19th centuries. Poverty continued to exist, and the rich became richer, but the insertion of the middle class changed society in the 20th century. As Harold Perkin (2002, Preface, p.xv) has observed, "the Industrial Revolution was no mere sequence of changes in industrial techniques and production, but a social revolution with social causes as well as profound social effects". 1A. Examples of Contemporary Social Change By 2000, it became obvious that another major upheaval was taking place in society-the electronic or information revolution. The growth of the Internet between 1990 and 2000 was phenomenal, and at present shows no signs of decreasing. An overview makes it apparent that information technology (IT) and the resulting electronic advances determine social change throughout the planet as noted below: Interconnects people and organisations worldwide The business world now extends throughout the global community, and any business which does not have its own Web site is apt to fail. It is also a time when entrepreneurs are able to work on computers from home to earn money. With online shopping and eBay, all needs are anticipated, from the largest department stores to an individual selling on eBay. No longer is society isolated in pockets of communities; ease of travel has made the whole world accessible. In addition, information technology has linked the public to government, non-government, and private agencies where information can be downloaded without having to leave home. This is especially true in the United Kingdom. Every issue of concern to UK residents has a main Government site with several links to various issues and strategies. For instance, if one wishes to find information on poverty as a social illness, it is available at the following Web site: http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/social_exclusion_task_force/ Less one-on-one personal contact with increase in IT communication It is obvious that anyone dependent on use of a computer will have less personal contact with individuals. Even as world travel becomes less and less complicated, people are becoming more and more isolated. Watch the person traveling to a resort and sitting at a table all alone with a wireless computer open in front of him or her rather than striking up a conversation with other visitors from all over the world. E-mails offer quick, brief communication as a method of connecting with another person, but they don't lend themselves to long discussions and personal interaction with friends and relatives. Some people become so addicted to online discussion groups that they spend all their free time engaged in mindless chatter, and some use chat groups as therapy sessions or a way to communicate with others who share similar interests. There are an overwhelming number of chat groups available on the Internet, from how to use a business program called SharePoint to communications with fellow cat lovers. Google offers information on every subject, but information is not always correct. Using the Internet to research a paper or find a specific product has many benefits, but the important factor is the source of information-whether or not it is reliable. For research purposes, the priority for a researcher is to access several sites regarding an issue and make a decision based on personal understanding of the material. For product reliability and best price, it is necessary to explore the same product from several sources. The tendency in this society is to accept as truth anything that is in print. However, the media has had to change its approach given the immediacy of the information available to them. They don't have time to analyse the information to make sure the news story they are presenting is correct, and therefore they find it necessary to utilise personal understanding to write the story. Personal bias colors the news. Even so, the public can use the Internet to investigate the information presented on the news, but in a fast-moving society, this is seldom done. It becomes the responsibility of the non-governmental agencies to offer options and to target inconsistencies and protests. The major issues in contemporary society are poverty, ecology, and crime. The immediacy of the Internet creates dependence on electronics According to official Government research, access to the Internet across the whole UK population at the beginning of the present century was estimated at 44%. Though not a majority, it was a high enough percentage to affect society. Unofficial research estimates that UK home usage at the time constituted between 20-25 million people, and by 2001 40% of UK homes were connected to the Internet. The 'UK Online Census' initiative was launched to ensure that everyone in the UK who wants it would have access to the Internet (Internet usage, 2001). Each year has shown an increase in Internet usage, and with such a high number of users at home and in business, a prolonged computer crash has the potential to literally destroy the economy. It's all about backing up records and being prepared for a machine breakdown. Machines have replaced personal information gathering and can do so at a much higher rate than any individual. Many hackers and the computer 'nerds' have made it their mission to infiltrate the Internet and cause crashes, just because they can. In addition to accumulating information, it is equally important for the public to anticipate and try to prevent loss of information. Information available on the Internet becomes the story of humanity from its inception to the present; it is history from its source. Electronics are developing at a much faster rate than the public can access them The public, in the area of electronic development, can be defined as the upper echelon of society, those who have the money or work for a company that has the money to invest in the latest products, for instance the Blackberry, an all-in-one product in the business world offering wireless capability, e-mail and Internet access, MP3 player with headphones, camera, and, of course, a phone. In the meantime, various areas of computer use require different equipment and at the most basic level, an effort is being made by Government in the UK to cross the digital divide and bring the Internet to all. The obstacle to this effort is the need to offer up-to-date equipment that will continue to be useful over at least five years. The middle class that highlighted the 20th century has all but disappeared, with a wide gap between upper and lower classes. It can be compared to a classroom in which instruction is focused on the brightest students, with everyone else falling behind. References: Question 1 Internet usage statistics-the 'digital' divide 2001. Viewed 24 December, 2006. http://www.regeneration-uk.com/Info/are.htm Perkin, Harold 2002. The Origins of Modern English Society. Routledge: London, 480 pp. 2. How is IT Changing the World of Learning In the area of learning, what changes are evident One, of course is language usage. Even as the global community brings foreign languages into play-Google offers 36 different languages along with translation access on their search engine (Google Language Tools, 2006)-the English language is also evolving. Much of the content on the Internet utilises descriptions that begin as acronyms and eventually become words in their own right. The simplest example of this is WWW or World Wide Web. The educational system is becoming Web-based and more dependent on adaptive and intelligent technologies. In their capacity as 'intelligent systems', these systems apply techniques from the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to provide better support for users (Brusilovsky and Peylo, 2003). The motivator behind Web-based educational (WBE) systems is, naturally, Web-based education. With no human teacher nearby, a one-stop solution had to be developed for all students' needs. Instead of simply delivering knowledge, problem solving became part of the process, and this expanded into use of several technologies to create a versatile system supporting nearly all the needs of students and teachers. According to Brusilovsky and Peylo (2003, Table 2), the major paradigms of artificial intelligence in education have developed rapidly in the last 30 years. In the 1970s, instruction became available within a classroom without teachers and offered computer-generated learning material utilising presentations with some exercises and problems intended to deliver knowledge. Technology at that time relied on mainframe and mini-computers. The next step in artificial intelligence still required a classroom with a facilitator or self-study and by the 1980s offered core technology that called for interactive problem solving with the use of personal computers. The changes that have taken place from the 1990s to the present have developed comprehensive support for independent self-study and rich learning material on-line offering presentations, examples, and problems. The extensive use of adaptive hypermedia has reinstated intelligent solution analysis and created a range of Web-inspired technologies focusing on available intelligent technologies through use of the World Wide Web instead of the single intelligent technology relied on previously. References: Question 2 Brusilovsky, P. and Peylo, C. 2003. Adaptive and Intelligent Web-based Educational Systems. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education 13, 156-169. Viewed 24 December, 2006. http://aied.inf.ed.ac.uk/members02/archive/Vol_13/brusilovsky/full.html Google Language Tools. Viewed 24 December, 2006. http://www.google.com/language_toolshl=en 3. What are main arguments showing that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer In this century, technology has gone past information only and now includes communication, creating a new acronym for information and communication technology-ICT. According to MIT professor Gary Marx (2001), relying on technology to control human behaviour in a democratic society has clear social and ethical limitations. As more people at higher income levels feel it necessary to utilise technological security programs, predators may focus greater attention on those unable to afford enhanced levels of security. This leads to the rich maintaining their status whilst the poor are targeted and become poorer. Use of ICT is as much a political and economic issue as it is a technical issue. While information technologies are spreading widely in rich countries, only the elite has access to such technologies in poor countries (Information, 2003, p. 366). The dominance of the world market indicates inequality is increasing, as globalisation encourages commercialisation of the Internet. Much information is already available only to those who can afford it. Content from poor countries is at the bottom of the scale. Requirements of culture should encompass the wide variety of cultural differences in the world against the tendency of some ICT based areas to be mono-cultural and mono-lingual (Berleur, Finnbogadottir, and Brunnstein, 2003). In the past, private property rights became the defining legal method for extending business relations around the world. At present, however, it is intellectual property rights-legal ownership of an idea-which has become the focus of success, and the global network is evolving into the virtual marketplace. Some examples of intellectual properties include copyright, patent, trademark, industrial design right, and trade secret (Technological Evolution, 2006). The market economy is giving way to a new economic system in the software, communications, and telecom revolutions (Rifkin, 2006). The key to this new system is user access on the Internet. The middleman in business is being phased out, and the customer has immediate access to the product. Along with the disappearance of the middleman, those people involved in previous necessary transaction costs must be educated in electronics or become unskilled workers. The phrases 'information rich' and 'information poor' are replacing wealth and poverty as economic labels. Industrialised countries are more apt to be information rich, with access to electronic equipment and connection to world events. Developing countries have much less in the way of electronic capability, and this keeps them from catching up to information-rich countries. Access to information is becoming more important than how much capital a country has. With products evolving faster than people can benefit from them before they are out of date, ownership is giving way to accessing services, for instance leasing an automobile rather than buying it. The propertied era, according to Rifkin, is ending with the beginning of the "Age of Access" (2006, p. 22). References: Question 3 Berleur, J. Finnbogadottir, V. Brunnstein, K. Areas of Interest on Social Accountability, World Information Technology Forum, 27-29 August, 2003. Viewed 25 December, 2006. http://www.witfor.lt/BLOBimage2.aspid=479 Information Gap 2003. World Information Technology Forum, 27-29 August, 2003. Viewed 25 December, 2006. http://www.witfor.lt/page=366 Marx, G.T. "Technology and Social Control: The Search for the Illusive Silver Bullet. International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences", 2001. Viewed 22 December, 2006. http://web.mit.edu/gtmarx/www/techandsocial.html Rifkin, J. 2006. "The Changing Nature of Property: From Markets to Networks". Think On, Issue 7, January 2006, pp. 20-24. Viewed 26 December 2006. http://www.altana.com/files/e_paper/b6480c4ef914165b2caa/think_on_7_engl.pdf 4. How does Weber's rationalisation theory affect widespread use of 'artificial intelligence' According to Wikipedia (Technological Evolution, 2006), the theory of technological singularity targets a period in the development of civilization, with technological progress so rapid that nothing beyond that time can be comprehended. None of the theories presented in society will predict the future; however, they will help gain a better understanding of changes taking place in the modern world. Max Weber's three-part theory clearly has a place in the world of artificial intelligence. It can be determined, given the rapid increase in technology, that intellectual property and its ownership will become increasingly more important relative to material labour and physical goods. Those who look ahead and protect their property with various legal entitlements will be successful in a virtual environment. The 'World System' or tri-modal approach to social development explores the role and relationships between societies and the changes produced by them. Countries are divided into 'core' countries (those which dominate) and countries being dominated whilst they in turn dominate others (Technical Evolution, 2006). This follows Weber's theory of tripartite classification. Max Weber was born in Germany in 1864 and made his social ideas known at the peak of the industrial revolution. It was his contention that all communities are arranged in a manner that goods, tangible and intangible, symbolic and material, are distributed and such a distribution is always unequal and necessarily involves power. His theory divides society into three areas: status groups (social order), classes (economic order) and parties (legal/political order). Each is affected by the other. Weber's theory can be connected to the present theory of modernization above, where Western countries are the most developed but eventually the rest of the industrial world will reach the same level, whilst Third World countries continue to need direction. Although he made his analysis based on the industrial societies of his time, the present ICT society continues to reflect his thinking. His multi-causal system encompasses both the idea and the material, and his rationalization concept fits very well into the new global economy. In Weber's own words: This whole process of rationalisation in the factory and elsewhere, and especially in the bureaucratic state machine, parallels the centralisation of the material implements of organisation in the hands of the master. Thus, discipline inexorably takes over ever-larger areas as the satisfaction of political and economic needs is increasingly rationalised. This universal phenomenon more and more restricts the importance of charisma and of individually differentiated conduct" (Weber, 1921/1968, p. 1156) An overview of the material collected for this paper indicates that the changes in society that have occurred since the end of the 20th century are as cataclysmic as those occurring at the end of the 19th century. But even with what appears to be progress in methods of collecting information and utilising communication, the same theories exist as in Weber's day, and the same exploration of what the future might bring is necessary. From single intelligent technology and mainframe computers to personal computers and ultimately to several intelligent technologies on the World Wide Web, the result is an educational method called "Artificial Intelligence," and because of the speed with which this technology is being improved, it is difficult to predict how successful it might be in the scheme of things. World balance is the goal; global cooperation and collaboration must take the place of competition. References: Question 4 Technological Evolution 2006. Wikipedia. Viewed 25 December, 2006. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_evolution Weber, Max.1921/1968. Max Weber on Law in Economy and Society. Max Rheinstein (ed.). Translated by Edward Shils and Max Rheinstein. 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