The Digital Divide

The Digital Divide

How the ICT industry affects society.

I will start this document by discussing the positive effects that the ICT industry has on society.

There are many reasons why the ICT industry has a positive impact in modern society and local communities, first being the ability to communicate together much faster and easier than ever. ICT offers a broad range of communication channels via an internet connection like e-mail, social networking sites (such as facebook, twitter & youtube) and more commonly the ability to use text messaging on our mobile phones. Communication is probably the most important thing we do as humans, due to the fact the world is just so massive, and the ICT industry allows us to do that in seconds.

Another positive effect that the ICT industry has on society is in your local community, all about safety. For example, many streets in the UK now have CCTV cameras fitted on each corner to protect the people on a specific community. CCTV can also be used in the retail sector, as they are commonly fitted in stores around city centres. CCTV cameras work by capturing moments on video and being sent to the authorities for review or evidence.

Technologies used from the ICT industry have grown massively in the last 20 years or so, nowadays we have the technology in the health sector to save more lives than ever before. Not only is this positive for the patients who need the help, but this is also great the business or organisations – such as the NHS – as they can assist more patients faster and get through more patients every single day. ICT has become vital for sectors of society like our health sector and the positives hear far out-weigh the negatives.

Next, I will discuss the negative impacts that the ICT industry has on society and our communities.

I will start with energy consumption that ICT requires and the negative impacts it has on our environment. Computer systems and anything ICT-related is something likely electrical, and electricity needs energy. Our consumption of energy has a negative impact on our environments – and that effects society, specifically people who might live in those areas, or environmental or animal preservation groups.

But what about the negative effects on an individual? Of course ICT provides everyone who uses it many useful features that we use in our daily lives, but too much of that could possibly be health damaging on the user. If someone never leaves the house because of ICT then they won’t get the exercise they need – and that can lead to many different problems and negative effects on the user.

Another important negative effect that ICT can have on an individual is a popular one these days, loss of personal data. Every user accessing the inter for whatever reason is at risk of losing sensitive data to scammers and thieves, data such as debit card or bank details, or passwaords and e-mail addresses. No matter what it is, it is still personal and if someone was to get hold of you information it could lead to many different negative outcomes.