Social and
Economic Effects of IT
Before
the industrial revolution nearly everyone worked in
agriculture. Communication was by word of mouth or paper.
When the industrial revolution came, life became more
complicated. People started to work in factories and the
factories needed offices to deal with administration. The
amount of paperwork needed to trade started to increase.
As time went on, technology was used to develop machines
such as the typewriter, telephone and telex machines and
eventually, the computer. We are now in an 'information
age' and our society is very dependent on information
storage and communication. Many are now using some form
of information technology to help them.
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Is information
technology a good thing?
Some
arguments for and against IT are given below. You may
agree or disagree with these.
Arguments in
favour
- The jobs
replaced by computers are the rather mundane ones.
People are free to do more interesting tasks.
- Higher
productivity enables people to work fewer hours
and yet have the same standard of living. A
greater amount of leisure time will improve
people's quality of life.
- Other
countries make use of IT. If we did not, our
goods and services would become uncompetitive and
there would be even more unemployment.
- There are
many tasks that would be impossible without the
use of IT. Air-traffic control, credit cards,
space travel and medical research are just some
examples.
- New jobs
are being created by the introduction of IT e.g.
programming, network managing etc.
Arguments
against
- Life
without IT is slower and less stressful.
- Computers
are cheaper than people are so if a computer can
do a job then it will lead to higher unemployment.
- The new
jobs being created by the use of IT are only for
highly skilled and qualified people.
- The people
who did the boring repetitive jobs now done by
computers no longer have a job.
- The storage
of personal data held on computer has eroded
people's privacy.
- The gap
will be widened between those countries able to
afford the new technologies and those that can't.
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Changing
Employment Patterns
With
the introduction of computer controlled technology
employment patterns have changed considerably. Changes
include the following:
- Robots are
now performing many of the manual tasks such as
assembly work and paint spraying in factories.
- Many
industrial processes operate 24 hours a day and
are continually being monitored and controlled by
computers.
- There are
fewer paper-based systems in offices. Some jobs
such as filing clerks no longer exist. New jobs
involving computers have been created.
- More and
more people work form home, with the advantage of
no travelling and the freedom of being able to
live in any part of the country (or the world for
that matter).
- Computers
are sometimes used to monitor the performance of
their users. For instance, in supermarkets they
can tell the management about the number of
customers dealt with per hour or how many items
are passed through the scanner in a day. Order
entry clerks and airline booking clerks can have
their work similarly monitored.
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Identity cards
move a step closer
Driving
licenses are now to be in credit card format and have a
photograph of the driver on them. Eventually the
government would like to add a microchip to these cards,
thus making the card into a 'smart card'. Stored on the
chip will be details of any endorsements for motoring
offences, whether the driver was willing to donate organs
and health details such as allergies. The card might also
store National Insurance details, which would enable
health details to be located. Many people are worried
about this card, since they see it as an identity card
under the disguise of a driving license. Some people
argue that an identity card would help fight crime and
Britain is the only European country not to have one.
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Environmentally
friendly computers
Green
computers (not the colour!) are computers that have been
built considering the needs of the environment. For
instance, they use less electricity than ordinary
computers. One way that they do this is that they power
down the monitor and disk drives if the computer has been
inactive for a certain period of time. It is claimed that
by the end of the century computers will account for 10%
of the world's power supply. Laser printers, however, are
not very environmentally friendly; they churn out a nasty
gas called ozone (it's only useful in the upper layers of
the atmosphere), they use a lot of power and in addition
destroy forests with all the paper they use. If less
paper were used it would help conserve the rain forests.
This is one of the ideas behind the development of the
paperless offices.
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Computer game
addiction
Some
children are addicted to computer games, sometimes
playing them for more than 30 hours per week. Many
experts are worried that this solitary activity is
affecting the social and educational development of
addicted children. Many computer games do not mimic
reality and often involve simulated violence. Other
people are worried that many children are becoming 'couch
potatoes', and are not involved in any physical activity
and do not interact very well with adults or people their
own age.
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The shape of things to
come
The
merger of three technologies: the silicon chip, fibre
optics and satellite communications has led to the
concept of the information superhighway. This is a global
network of computers capable of moving huge amounts of
information via satellite and cable. The digital
revolution is likely to change all our lives considerably.
By pressing a key at any time of the day you will be able
to get information in a suitable form on demand anywhere
in the world. The information is not restricted to
business: community information and learning data will be
provided. At the moment your television set is restricted
to a few channels (more if you are lucky enough to have
satellite or cable). In the near future your television
will be the gateway to fibre optic network. This will
bring hundreds of channels, video on demand, home
shopping, home banking and access to millions of data
banks. Trips to the library to find out information for a
GCSE project will be a thing of the past. You will be
able to get to the information you want quickly and in
the comfort of your own home.
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Environmental,
ethical, moral and social issues raised by information
technology
Environmental
issues
- Reduced
energy consumption - Computers now control many
of the heating systems in offices and factories so it is
possible for only the rooms that are being used to be
heated. This can save huge amounts of energy.
- Reduced
wastage in industrial processes - There are many
process control systems used in our factories and because
these are more accurate, there is less wastage, thus
saving valuable resources.
- Saving
trees - The use of the electronic office and EDI
has led to paper being almost eliminated in many offices
and this means that fewer trees need to be felled. So not
only are the trees saved but the energy that went into
the making of the paper is also saved.
- Reducing
car pollution - Teleworking (working at home
using information technology) means that some people no
longer have to travel to the office to work. This reduces
petrol consumption and car pollution.
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Ethical, moral and
social issues
- Software
theft - It could be said that the use of
personal computers has made many users into thieves. How
many people could honestly say that they have purchased
all the software on their hard disks? As you can see from
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1989, it is a
criminal offence to copy or steal software.
- Hacking
- Hacking means gaining illegal access to someone else's
computer system. Many people see this type of thing as a
challenge and not as an illegal activity.
- Privacy
- Many people see the Data Protection Act as inadequate,
since in 1984, when the act was made law, there weren't
anything like the number of personal computers and
communications networks that there are today. Some people
are totally unaware of the act and think that it only
applies to large companies or organisations.
- Job
losses - Is it right to develop new systems in
the knowledge that staff will inevitably be made
redundant? Should we put shareholders' dividends and
profit before people? These are difficult questions and
ones, which need to be addressed. Everyone has his or her
own opinion on this.
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Social and ethical
considerations for the Internet
The
Internet provides access to a variety of information on
every topic and this information comes from many
different countries throughout the world.
One problem
with the Internet is that all the information is freely
available once the user is connected. There are news
areas on the Internet, which contain large amounts of
illegal pornographic material. Material that is illegal
in some countries may be perfectly legal in others.
Governments have the problem of finding a way of allowing
users to gain access to the Internet but not to any
illegal areas. If access to such material is restricted
on one part of the Internet then a user can simply move
to another area to find a way to access the material. There is a problem in restricting access.
The
Internet is a global system and it is difficult of make
laws to control it by single countries. Another
problem with restrictions is that it could lead
governments to begin attempts to censor, legislate and
regulate the Internet for political, cultural and
religious reasons. Civil liberty groups are naturally
concerned about this aspect of control.
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Social
considerations for a cashless society
A
future without any form of cash is unlikely but over the
last ten years the use of cash for making payments has
reduced considerably. We will now look at the advantages
and disadvantage of a cashless society.
Advantages
- It is far
more convenient not to have to use cash. Mortgage
and loan repayments, gas, electricity and phone
bills are paid automatically so you don't need to
remember to pay them.
- You no
longer need to take large sums of money out of
the building society or bank to pay for expensive
items: the risk of being robbed is reduced.
- You don't
have to queue at the bank, building society or
cash machine to get money out.
- Credit
cards allow people to buy goods and then decide
whether to pay for them at the end of the month
or obtain them on credit, paying a proportion
each month.
Disadvantages
- Credit is
normally given only to people who are working and
have a steady source of income, so certain people
won't be able to get it.
- It is
possible for people to spend more than they can
really afford so they can easily get into debt.
- More
information is kept about individuals. Inevitably
some of this will be incorrect and lead to people
wrongly being refused cash or credit cards.
- It is
harder for people to keep track of how much they
have spent, since statements are usually sent
only once a month, although statements can
usually be obtained more frequently if they are
requested.
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Crime prevention and
detection
Crime prevention
- IT can be
used to help prevent crime and the systems
employed include the following.
- Speed
camera systems and camera systems, which detect
cars jumping red lights, deter people from
offending.
- Computer
controlled camera systems deter violent crime in
many city centres.
- Tagging of
offenders means that they are less likely to
commit crimes whilst on bail.
- Tagging
systems on bikes, cars and other property reduces
the chances of them being stolen.
- Computer
controlled house security systems deter some
burglars.
Crime detection
- IT can be
used to catch criminals and some of the ways it
can do this are as follows:
- The Police
National Computer (PNC) is used to hold details
of all crimes committed and criminals.
- The
National Criminal Intelligence System is a
computer system used to piece together
information about individual criminals and their
illegal activities. The computer can interact
with the data supplied by Interpol, the PNC,
Customs and Excise, the Inland Revenue, and the
bank and building society computers. This system
is used to gather material on organised crimes
such as drug smuggling.
- DNA
profiling and fingerprinting systems enables
valuable, and often conclusive, evidence to be
collected.
- Police
headquarters computers for each police force are
used in the day-to-day administration of all the
usual police work.
Problems
with the Police National Computer (PNC)
- There is a
risk that illegal access to the PNC could allow
people outside the police force to gain
information.
- There are
worries that the running of the PNC will be
passed over to a private company. The PNC
contains criminal records, details of wanted or
dangerous people, disqualified drivers, stolen
cars and guns and also the records of 30 million
motorists. Some files indicate that a person is
HIV positive. In addition to all this there are
details of 70,000 people of 'long-term interest'
held. The concern is that a private company
running the PNC would not be trusted as much as
the police and people could be reluctant to pass
information to the PNC.
- Information
on the PNC might be incorrect and this could stop
someone getting a job or could even result in a
person being wrongly arrested for a crime.
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Information & Communication Technology 1996-2003
Page last updated 30/03/2002 © I.D.Lee, Didcot Girls' School