TECHNOLOGY

Impacts of Information Technology on the Social and Societal Structure

[Name of the Institute]

Impacts of Information Technology on the Social and Societal Structure

Social Impacts of Information Technology

Most people recognize that information technology has a central role in the contemporary world. The concept of a "computer revolution" is widespread, and some take it quite literally. That is, the computer is identified as the key technological device producing the third great revolution in human history as the plow was the key device for the agricultural revolution and the machine was the key device for the industrial revolution. Yet people also believe that they do not have much understanding of the overall impacts of computer technology on their lives. There is widespread ambivalence in contemporary images regarding computing. On the one hand, the computer is presented as the principal facilitator. Loyal and tireless in its efforts to eliminate the drudgery of labor and apply its genius to the service of balanced life. On the other hand, the computer is ominous and threatening, the central artifact in a brave new world where human needs for individuality and privacy, for meaningful work, and for a sense of mastery over the environment are crushed by Dr. Frankenstein's most superhuman and uncontrollable creations. If the computer truly is a technology of immense and problematic consequence, its impacts on society merit the most extensive and thoughtful empirical study. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which social scientists have been, as they arguably should be, leaders in the development of our knowledge about the social impacts of information technology.

Technology and knowledge are the cornerstones of social progress. Modern society cannot be seen only from the knowledge development has had in recent decades. It has gone from the industrial to informational development. According to Carlota Solé, “Growth and development of a postindustrial society, advanced technology is the result of a complex social factors and not just the accumulation of capital. Innovation, creativity and change, depend much more directly than before on the level of knowledge. Information, education, scientific and technical research, professional training, ability to schedule and regulate changes social relationships of a business, forms of management and organization, among others, are the factors of production.”

The social relationship is based on communication

For there to be a human or social group, members must have an interpersonal relationship, which requires the ability to communicate. In any social action is the need for establishing a flow of information among its members, though not always apparent: for example, in a clear productive relationship aspect is the exchange of goods and services, but requires prior knowledge of where to obtain or what to offer, and a more or less formal dialogue at the time of determining the price.

The communication difficulties social structures condition: you cannot have more land than can be monitored, or direct a team activity without transmitting instructions or adequately perform a particular social role without knowing the rules that others expect to see fulfilled, or maintain without the ...