The Impact Of Digital Technology

This article will discuss the impact of new and emerging creative technologies on society covering some of the key moments and figures. It will cover the historical roots and emergence of digital technology and will cover how digital technology itself has shaped the world with regards to society and social communication.

In 1450 Johannes Gutenberg invented Europe’s first movable printing press. Printing was not new to the world both the Chinese and the Japanese had been printing since the 7th century and the Koreans had created a movable type printer in the early 15th century but Gutenberg’s was the first movable type printer to use an alphabet instead of ideograms (Briggs and Burke 2010). Before that time books throughout Europe were written

A digital divide exists between the information rich and the information poor (Ess 2009). Causes of the digital divide vary, for example within single economies factors such as economic class can put financial barriers to internet access. Rural locations tend to have less access as opposed to urban locations. People’s level of education in regards to digital technology can play a major factor. Children born into a digital world tend to be more adapt to using digital technology than the over 65’s for whom it can seem alien. The digital divide is a global issue too. A report for the International Telecommunication Union shows that countries with the most access are developed countries with strong economies for example South Korea, is now the most connected country, as opposed to poorer economic countries like Niger which is the least connected country (Wakefield 2010). Countries attitudes towards the internet also need to change. The Finnish government in 2010 declared internet access to be a basic human right yet in Mozambique using a gigabyte of data online would cost the average person more than two months ' wages (Kelion

Social media sites were created for the purpose of linking people. Websites such as Facebook, Twitter and You Tube have allowed people to put their lives online and allowed the world to see it and comment on it. Social media is now the number one activity on the web. Facebook had more than 200 million users in less than a year and currently has 500 million active users with the average user spending 55 minutes a day on the site. People can use social media to seek out online communities to interact with people of similar interests (What Is Social Media? Find out exactly what is social media... 2011). Social media can however be a double edged sword. People relinquish their privacy more and more with the information they put online as this can be available for everyone to view not just those in their group of friends. Although many people now form friendships online you have no real way of knowing if the person you are interacting with is who they claim to be. Some people use social media as a way to be someone else. Unless you chose to share information about yourself the internet can offer a certain amount of anonymity. While some may adopt an alter ego for harmless escapism it can sometimes be for more sinister reasons. Online bullying has seen a dramatic rise in recent years. The information you put on the web is never strictly private and by monitoring a person’s web