Positive and Negative Impacts of Information Technology on Society
Information technology, shortly known as IT, is the application of computers, networking and other physical devices to handle electronic information or data. Information technology has seen a big growth over the years as the world and societies have embraced technology. This growth in information technology has, however, had very many impacts on the societies, both negative and positive impacts.
Increased production and time saving are among the advantages of information technology as businesses and organizations have embraced the use of technology to automate tasks. Information technology has also improved communication with the aid of tools like phones, video conferencing, e.t.c. Globalization has also been made possible by information technology and businesses now find it easy to market and sell their goods and services (Brynjolfsson, 1993). There has also been an improvement in the financial management as business owners can use accounting software to perform accounting tasks in their businesses. The education sector has also benefited from information technology as education materials can now be accessed using tools like the internet. Finally, Business to consumer relationship has also improved as technology has provided a medium of interaction between the two.
This doesn’t, however, mean that information technology doesn’t have negative impacts credited to its account. Information technology has also lead to job elimination as it has taken over most of the positions which humans occupied. Information technology is also addictive and has also created a communication loss as people are now too busy for their friends and families.
In conclusion, as the world embraces information technology, it should also be ready accept and embrace the negative and positive impacts it is having on the society as such is inevitable.
Reference.
Brynjolfsson, E. (1993). The productivity paradox of information technology. Communications of the ACM, 36(12), 66-77.
