Life In The Information Age: How Ict Has Impacted Me
Introduction
I am presently studying at the International school of Karachi pursuing my A levels. This E-book is going to be about how ICT has impacted my functioning style. Before we discuss anything else the most basic questions is how did we even get here. It’s all because of Human Curiosity. Curiosity is one of the main thrust to investigate obscure, look for unexplored areas. Actually, curiosity goes about as a main thrust behind numerous revelations or developments. It is a tipping purpose of human progress since it prompted the revelation of three most critical disclosures as indicated by me which are Fire, Electricity and the innovation of PC.
Among any other development the best impact on individuals is no doubt the internet. Particularly, in this day and age, internet has certainly turned out to be fundamental piece of an individual's' life. Truth be told, existence without the internet is as agonizing as existence without the sun. Except if the internet never existed, individuals would feel unfilled. Hence, internet has effectively assumed a noteworthy position in an individual’s public activity in pretty much 20 years. At home, at office, at school, even while individuals are strolling in the city, internet is dependably in their lives. Since the approach of the internet, it has improved life.
So as we advance in this E-book to investigate the skylines of innovation, we will become familiar with how ICT has improved human connection and how it has changed our viewpoint about how we use and how ICT has impacted our lives. This E-book will help us better understand about the things we already know and will give us a clear picture of reality as we know of it today.
Online Services
When one considers discussing ICT, internet is the main thing that rings a bell. Presently the Internet is a standout amongst the best developments just as a result of the online services that it offers. Let’s talk about 5 most regular online services that we use in our day to day life.
Download Services:
Downloading in its simplest meaning is when your computer is receiving data from the Internet. Now Internet is something that you pay for. No matter how advanced the society is in which you live but an unavailability of the internet 24/7 is highly unlikely. This is where this service comes in and helps you to enjoy similar features while you're offline. Now it could include listening to music, a film or even software.
Advantages:
- It’s quite difficult to stay online 24/7 so most downloaded services can be used offline.
- Some services such as Email provide an option to download the file multiple times, so no risk of losing files.
Disadvantages:
- Downloaded files can contain viruses.
- Download services have risen copyright issues.
Entertainment:
On the off chance that someone had disclosed to me ten years prior that I would invest the majority of my free energy before a digital screen I would have called him insane. For me outside life has dependably been substantially more intriguing than remaining at home. It took me only one night to acknowledge how essential the Internet is for me. That night I was gifted my first Smartphone and I spent the entire night online, simply entertaining myself. Social Media, YouTube, Netflix and TED talks are few that I use for my extra time. Recently VR (Virtual Reality) has given a whole new definition to online entertainment.
Advantages:
- People who work 10 hours a day and are physically exhausted to go out for entertainment and can refer to online entertainment for a healthy mind.
- Games such as freerice.com allow you to play to donate.
Disadvantages:
- It might be healthy for mind but it’s not healthy physically as it might discourage people to get involved into physical activities.
- It is really easy for underage children to get hold of adult entertainment.
- People often share their personal information online and it might be vulnerable to digital assault.
Web storage:
A standout amongst the best service that you can get online is having the capacity to store data on the web. It is essentially putting away the data web based making it accessible on any gadget that is associated with the web. A few sorts of distributed storage frameworks have been created to support both individual and business uses. Giving my own example, even this E-Book is being written on Google Drive so that I can have access to it everywhere and can resume my work anytime anywhere.
Advantages:
- Data can be accessed from anywhere around the world.
- No need to carry USB drives around as they can even be lost.
- HDDs can not be trusted for data storage as they have a history of crashing.
Disadvantages:
- Unlike a USB drive it needs access to the internet.
- Unlike USB drive it can be hacked.
Online Education:
Online training is a sort of instructive guidance that is conveyed by means of the web to students utilizing their home PCs. Amid the most recent decade, online degrees and courses have turned out to be a well known option for a wide scope of nontraditional students, the individuals who need to keep working all day or raising families. More often than not all online degree projects and courses are offered through the host school's web based learning stage, albeit some are conveyed utilizing alternative means.
Online Learning: From figuring out how to play an instrument to learning another dialect, there are instructional exercise recordings accessible for nearly everything. Internet learning has made life extremely simple and new things less mind boggling. In the event that you don't have a clue how to cook another dish that is not an issue. The recipe and guidelines are few clicks away. Stuck with a math question or befuddled about your pets, everything can be learned on the web.
Virtual Learning Environments: A virtual learning environment (VLE) has a lot of educating and learning apparatuses intended to improve student's learning knowledge by including PCs and the Internet in the learning procedure. The central segments of a VLE bundle incorporate educational modules mapping (breaking educational modules into areas that can be allocated and surveyed), student tracking, online help for both educator and student, electronic correspondence (email, threaded discussions, chat, Web publishing), and Internet links to outside educational programs assets.
Advantages:
- All the lectures are recorded and people can actually save them and review them online again and again as per their convenience.
- Online courses are cheaper than courses offered at a campus.
- Helps overcome the distance gap so that a student in Pakistan can take a course from a french teacher in France.
Disadvantages:
- One cannot not maintain a proper discipline and a learning environment that is maintained in a class.
- Different time zones can be a problem for people in different countries as one might have to stay awake at night to take classes.
Online Communication:
In today's reality we end up conveying increasingly more through online channels, for example, messaging, social media and video calls. It has opened an entirely different probability of faster worldwide correspondence. It gives a chance to stay in touch with long-distance families and companions to convey on. How about we look at some of the diverse strategies for online communication.
Email: Email or Electronic mail is a message that can contain text, documents, pictures or other attachments sent through a network to a predetermined individual or group of people. It is a standout amongst the most widely recognized method of correspondence in the professional world.
Advantages:
- Emails are sent in real time.
- The online E-mail service is cheaper than the mail service.
- Eco- Friendly (no need to cut trees for paper).
- Email can be sent to any recipient 24/7.
Disadvantages:
- Unlike paper mail Emails can be hacked.
- Needs internet to be received.
- Virus can carry along an E-mail.
- Unwanted spam Emails include the possibility of phishing.
Instant messaging: A service accessible on the web that enables you to trade composed messages very rapidly with somebody who is utilizing the web in the meantime.
Advantages:
- Provides option for real time communication.
- Reduces chances of spam messages.
- Is very cheap and easy to manage.
Disadvantages:
- Can be a cause of distraction at workplaces.
- Because it is not a face to face interaction so it might not portray the emotions during the conversation.
Newsgroup: A newsgroup is where people can talk about a specific subject by posting messages on a news server. A newsgroup can be considered a discussion, where clients can peruse posts from different clients and present their own.
Advantages:
- It is simple to discover a newsgroup and they also have a arbitrator who makes sure that things don’t deteriorate into something that is socially disagreeable.
- The option of FAQs on newsgroup provide help with frequently asked questions.
Disadvantages:
- Unlike instant messaging their response time can go upto 1 day.
- The data on them is presented by individuals who may have no genuine thought of what they are discussing.
Online Conferencing: Like Email even online conferencing is a tool for the most part utilized by professionals for holding long-distant meetings at a brief time of notice.
Advantages:
- The possibility that it provides to call a meeting of people across the world at a short notice.
- Saves a lot of money in terms of travelling.
- It is much more organized than a local meeting.
Disadvantages:
- Unlike a physical meeting, online meeting can be a subject to software, hardware of network failure.
- Unlike physical meeting in online meeting a person not interested or their lack of participation is more likely to be ignored.
Social Networking:
Social networking is the utilization of web based social media projects to make associations with companions, family, cohorts, clients. Social networking can happen for social purposes, business purposes or both through websites, for example, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Classmates.com and Yelp. Social networking is additionally a noteworthy target territory for advertisers looking to draw in clients.
Advantages:
- Allows us to connect with long distant friends and family.
- Can be used for marketing and business purposes.
- Can keep you updated to the current news.
Disadvantages:
- People waste a lot of time online
- A lot of such sites have been known to sell personal information of users.
- Cyber harassment of women and cyber bullying for children.
Life in the Information Age
ICT has totally changed the ways of life of individuals here. It has made everything so quick, simple and open. From composing letters to riding ponies everything has changed.
Let’s talk about five noteworthy viewpoints in which ICT has truly changed the manner in which individuals did those things beforehand.
Employment opportunities: When you talk about ICT and work openings, it can get extremely disputable. We should think about the points of interest and weaknesses to have a superior comprehension. With the presence of ICT in this world it has opened whole new sets of opportunities for people. There is a significant number of fields that one can never come up short on alternatives to pick and favorable circumstances to characterize. One thing however that should be remembered is the developing populace. The populace is developing and the ICT is decreasing the labor required. This specific factor if it's not considered can cause a rise in the unemployment ratio in future. One choice to counter this issue can be if individuals end their materialistic methodology towards life and get increasingly included into social works, for example, community service.
Communication: Communication has played a major role in human development. If communication wouldn’t have existed our lives would not have been the same today. Communication has changed our reality of lifestyle twice. First was when we initially learned to communicate through signs and languages and the second was when ICT introduced the possibility of online communication. It has defied the gap that was previously created by distance and has helped people to connect and maintain a healthy relationship with their loved ones. It has also given rise to online dating where 1 in every 6 marriage is because of people meeting online. On a social aspect it does allow you to share photos and your biography online but at the same time it risks someone unauthorized or unwanted to gain access. On a professional aspect it has allowed the possibility of online conferencing which helps you to save a lot in terms of travelling, time and money and to hold a professional meeting of same standard at the same time. However one drawback of this could be the misuse of online communication at work places for personal purposes.
Working Styles: Now when businesses are taking place online it’s has allowed companies to hire people online and even an option for people to find jobs online. This on a personal level is very convenient because again, it saves a lot of time as you don’t have to spend time travelling from place to place to look for a job. But as convenient as it may sound it has a quite high possibility of making a person lazy. When it comes to social media it has introduced online shops where people who don’t even own actual shops can sell their products online.
Education: Training has changed from scrutinizing a book to learning off the web. Learning from web is primarily a great thing because one can schedule classes as per his own ease. There are a huge amount of destinations which have assorted information about focuses which may be profitable for your coursework or adventures. Now unlike schools/colleges using ICT for your education may not provide you with friends to socialize with, but one can use social networking sites for that such as facebook, instagram or snapchat. On a professional level teachers can email their class notes to students who can use them later for reviewing them. All this ease comes with equal amount of distraction as with books you are less likely to get distracted while with computers there are infinite amount of other things that one could switch to.
Entertainment and Leisure: As Practical as our lives have gotten, we always need some time off from work and refresh/entertain our minds. Entertainment and leisure online have provided a great deal of help in this regard by providing us 24/7 access to music, video games, movies and many more activities. Personally in our lives we have given it a slot in our daily schedule. With all the paid services like Netflix and spotify there are many other services that are online for free. From a social point of view online games have also helped people socialize a lot with some people even ending up marrying each other. In Pakistan the two most common ones are PUBG (Players Unknown Battle Ground) and Tik Tok. One of the disadvantage of this however is that these activities have discouraged outdoor games like football and among individuals which are really important for health. Staying home and using computer all day long can have some serious problems on health. Nowaday even companies have introduced rooms with proper setups for people to relax as I remember a friend who worked in IBEX Global that he has this Chillax room in his office where employees can play games during breaks. As much as these things are important they come with serious distractions so one needs to have a perfect balance between work and leisure.
Digital Divide
Digital divide is basically the gap between the people who have access to the digital advantages and those who are unaware of such benefits. This divide before the 20th century meant an access to a telephone/phone but now after the 20th century it includes television, Personal computers and mainly the internet. In this section we will discuss some of the reasons why this digital divide exists and their global and local effect.
Economical Factors
ICT has brought our lives into straightforwardness yet these advantages are not all that simple to accomplish. One needs legitimate funds to profit by ICT and that is the place economy comes in.
Globally: On the off chance that we think about economy on a global dimension, the primary thing that should be featured is the contrast between developed nations like USA and Canada and not yet developed nations Like Nigeria and Congo. In view of an appropriate economy in USA and Canada the greater part of their populace can manage the cost of the essential necessities and can spare enough funds to bear the cost of the advantages of ICT. In any case, nations like Nigeria and Congo who have the most noteworthy destitution rates flourish to gain the fundamental necessities and in light of the fact that isn't so natural for them they are not ready to bear the cost of the advantages of ICT.
Locally: Every community has financially stable and unstable groups however the difference in different communities could be the ratio of two. In Pakistan the average monthly income per person is around 12000 pkr to 13000 prk which is really low considering the prices of daily necessary products. Due to this particular fact most of the populace does not get to enjoy the benefits of ICT.
Geographical Factors
Globally: An other genuine clarification behind the Digital Divide is region. Because of this various propelling countries neglect to offer a relentless wellspring of power beside broad urban territories so access to electrical advancement will be even more difficult to use. Things like this could fuse the evacuated fields to rough territories and may even need basic framework in light of geographical components.
Locally: According to the Express Tribune half of the rural population in Pakistan still does not have an access to electricity. Electricity is the main thing when it comes to ICT because it powers up the gadgets or devices used to utilize ICT.
Fear of technology
Globally: Indeed, even the created nations who have the best possible access to ICT have numerous things to adapt up to. With the expanded utilization of innovation everything gets progressively revered on the grounds that they are bound to get hacked or assaulted through different types of digital assaults. This is the place the dread of utilizing innovation comes in or you may call it as Technophobia.
Locally: Fear of technology is one of the reason why some people who even have the opportunity to explore the benefits of ICT refrain from it. Now because most of the population in pakistan is
Bibliography:
- https://psychology.iresearchnet.com/social-psychology/personality/curiosity/ ( curiosity photo)
- https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/instant-messaging
- https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/social-networking.asp
- http://freerice.com/#/english-vocabulary/1921
- http://talk.payloadz.com/securely-distribute-your-digital-download/ (download photo)
- http://www.netnewsledger.com/2016/03/25/the-most-popular-form-of-online-entertainment-in-2016/
- https://www.ctrlahosting.com/cloud-storage.php
- http://sydneyinstituteonline.net/blog/2009/12/03/tafe-nsw-virtual-learning-environment-vle/
- https://www.howtogeek.com/56002/htg-explains-how-does-email-work/
- https://www.tutorialspoint.com/internet_technologies/usenet_newsgroup.htm http://www.emeetplus.com/product/online-conferencing.php
- https://nadineturner2017.wordpress.com/2017/01/10/how-does-social-networking-work/
- https://www.datingadvice.com/online-dating/online-dating-marriage-success
- https://qz.com/africa/1313380/nigerias-has-the-highest-rate-of-extreme-poverty-globally/
- https://mashable.com/2014/08/02/tech-phobias/#t42YobMl8sqK
- https://www.quora.com/What-is-your-salary-in-Pakistan
- https://tribune.com.pk/story/1683780/2-half-villages-pakistan-still-lack-access-electricity-reveals-report/
