I still hear stories from my grandparents about the black and white TV they had, or the letters they sent, or even how they never had telephones. It's always fascinated me. I can't imagine my life without the luxuries and technologies I have today. Life is so convenient today. You don't know anything, just google it, you are bored, just put on the TV and watch something, you miss someone somewhere far away, pick up the phone and call. In fact, technology has advanced to such a level that your TV, google and phone are all on one device, namely your hand phone. Everything has grown and changed the world at the speed of lightning!
Today, before the news is even out, the media is already talking about it. Social networking sites have taken over every aspect of life, from dating to breaking up, from finding new friends to keeping in touch with old friends and family. Technology has taken over education as well. There are schools with smart boards, eLearning videos, online quizzes and sometimes even online lectures. Human touch is lost.
On the flip side, ICT has it's advantages also. A major part of the world is living below the poverty line. As such poverty alleviation is an important concern. Poverty alleviation does not mean providing services to the poor. It means enhancement of the agency of the poor. The world's technology is unevenly distributed. As such, ICT plays the role in dealing with the digital divide. ICT also provides humans with the knowledge that they would otherwise never know. For example, today people do not run to the doctor for a slight flu or cold. They just find an appropriate medicine online. Even when patients visit a doctor, they do proper research on what the doctor says after they go home. This makes them feel more comfortable and at ease. These days, ICT is providing solutions to most of our problems! However, we have to keep in mind that ICT only improves that which is already good and worsens that which is already bad. It does not bring about a complete transformation!
The thing about ICT is that it not only has advantages and disadvantages, but has concerns as well. The top few concerns include security, espionage, invasion of privacy, identity theft and even corrupting influences! ICT brings along with it, a lot of risk when it comes to businesses and their private information. Moreover, ICT can be used for the wrong purposes as well. For example, terrorists use this technology for getting inside information about a country or its government. ICT has the potential to improve a country's situation, but it also has the potential to completely bring it down! There have been so many cases of identity theft. There have also been cases where people have taken up a false identities and fooled people. Several incidents have been reported where young boys/girls have committed suicide over a crush on someone they met online. In many of these cases, the person they had a crush on turned out to be a fake identity. Therefore, ICT has a potential risk on lives as well. Fiona's presentation in class was exactly about this. It was something that struck a chord and really interested me.
I had my individual presentation as well this week. My presentation was on the influence of social media on the world. It was based on an article from Cliche magazine. During and even after my presentation, I surveyed the class and most of my peers were of the opinion that social media is moving towards taking over the world. In an extreme sense, we are all becoming slaves to social media. There was a heated discussion after my presentation as well, on this very topic. One of my "food for thought" questions was that is the youth of today becoming a slave to social media? Again, there were varied opinions on the same. However, in conclusion, all I said, and would like to say is that we have to remember that nothing should be taken to extremes. Complete withdrawal from the use of social media is also bad. There has to be a proper balance where the human emotions aren't lost. Let's hope that we never see a day where the human is so used to chatting and texting, that he loses his ability to talk and make conversation.
Overall, my rating of the class: 8.5/10 :)
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