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Era of Internet and Information

View of Suwon city from the Suwon fort (South Korea)


With the development of science and technology, everyone will certainly accept that the socio-economic life of human beings has changed a lot due to their advancement. I believe it's similar to how the world changed during the 18th century after the industrial revolution in Europe. Machines were slowly introduced into the world and became essential to human lives. This advancement has created wealth and improved social and economic conditions. Similarly, since the late 20th century, the discovery of the personal computer and the internet has taken the world into a new "digital era" era. In this age, the internet has become an essential part of life. We use it for everything: gathering information, remotely controlling machines, doing research, entertainment, connectivity, communicating, finding a job, travelling, ordering food, shopping and many more. This era of information and technology is storming into an individual life at an incredible pace. Interestingly, most of these things have become accessible to nearly everyone at their fingertips. 
       Since I was born in the 90s, I did witness the era of this transition from non-digital to the digital world, i.e. online. Being a researcher, I cannot imagine my life without the internet, and I can get information about any random subject anytime. Getting information has become so easier that we need to type a few keywords in the google browser. 
        Interestingly, these changes came as a package of bright (good) and dark (evil). Looking into the brightest half doesn't mean that the dark part does not exist. Several things are potentially harming humans during the process of this digital development. One of the potentially harmful things, I suppose, is social media. It extensively manipulates people's opinion and their emotional behaviour. The algorithms that design various features in social media are so powerful that no human can avoid them or resist using them. Social media allows us to connect with people, share our stories and grow our business, but it should not consume an individual mind. In the coming days, I am sure we might see that an individual has learned to use social media in a balanced way, i.e., they do not consume their lives. 
           Besides, there are a lot of positive sides, too; access to information about any domain has become too easy. In the time of digitization and computer, we could see information floating around the internet. Our daily life has become too easy; we can work from distant locations and learn anything online. It's hard to predict where the world will be after a few decades, but I think besides the technology or information, we also need to focus on their social impacts. 

Comments

Santosh said…
You are right, Hisay. The last two decades have completely changed our way of learning and thinking. For us, it seems a long journey, but it will count as a radical change in the future.
17 November 2021 at 10:30
hisay said…
@Santosh..Certinaly let's see where it goes.
18 November 2021 at 17:59
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