Without a doubt the impact of information technology is changing the world around us every day, but what effects is it having around the world and at home. Those of us in the United States think that everyone has access to the internet, e-mail, cell phones, multi-media etc. This fact is just not true. My opinion is that your place in our culture society or class is dictating this.
In some situations some young people are only privileged to the internet at school or the library. When they get home the environment around them, except for the ever present cell phone is just not available. This can be due to personal financial situations, areas where the internet is not available or just not an important part of the household. Sometimes they student only uses the computer to access other friends and does not utilize the tremendous amount of research at their fingertips. It seems like everywhere you go now the “texters” are getting younger and younger.
According to James Graves, “Technology is constantly changing, and it is changing us as well”. What is Mr. Graves trying to tell us here? Do we not have a choice but to totally accept that the technology world will be part of our everyday culture? In my opinion he is trying to give us the positive side that will open us up to a new word of understanding. The down side of this is that around the world because of political pressures or poverty stricken areas these people will just not be part of our technical future.
In Pakistan for instance a study was done and summarized by Meena Kumari Rajani, and M. S. Chandio. The results of their findings are troublesome in some areas because the survey showed that the users of Internet is significant; however they use if for a very small portion of the time” which might be attributed to lack of knowledge and or lack of resources.
Another downside of the survey was that it appeared younger children who did have access online were frequently visiting pornographic sites because of lack of computer knowledge by a parent or guardian. Some might argue that this occurs in high income and social upper societies everywhere. I agree with this even if the parents have computer knowledge. Also, costs are going to have to decrease but with new technology being produced everyday in my opinion this is probably not going to happen.
In China however, the total opposite approach is taken. There is a total different and sometimes total government approach, tone, and control of the Informatization. The Internet is also used for propaganda to the outside world to control what goes out and comes into the country. If bad information is posted, the government agency in control of this just brings the websites down.
One way this was manipulated by the Chinese was to use routers which gives the same message if a website is down or has been removed. On the other hand, proxy servers give a message that the user has been denied access to a searched site. This was experienced a few years ago in the Olympic Games when foreign journalists were denied access to common sites because the Chinese government did want their own people to have access. Do you think countries should have control over the internet? Should the government be allowed to monitor user sites? Just a couple of thoughts as this world of technology continues to grow.
