Impact Of Technological Advancements On Human Lives: A Study Of IT In The Last 40 Years

Impact on Communication

Question:

Discuss about the Critical Path Segments Method Academy.

Technological advancements particularly in the field of information technology have affected lives the human beings to an extent over the past 40 years. The key question is 'How has IT influenced human lives, during 1960s and afterwards?’. The context here refers to the technological advancements (what) in the past 40 years (when). Since, scientific advancements are of global importance, the places of context consist of the global economy. IT refers to advancements in the field of information knowledge and its application in areas like communication, commerce and environmental protection. The plan of the essay is to explore advancements in these five fields and their impact on the human lives (Bloom  et al., 2014). Informational technology has transformed lives of people all over the world. Today people are able to communicate with each other within a very short span of time. Today IT has enabled booking tickets and hotels, thus making transport more comfortable and safe. IT aided project management has boosted manufacturing of goods which in turn has boosted flow of money in the global economy. These advancements of IT and its development are not uniform in the world. Advancement in IT has dramatically transformed the lives of the people living in the developed and developing countries. IT has made the lives of these people more comfortable and easier. However, the poor countries even today are deprived of these benefits of IT. They are dependent on the developed and developing countries even for their basic requirements.

Advancements in IT have resulted in environmental pollution, which is devastating the health of people, animals and plants. For example, large-scale manufacturing of goods cause pollution due to higher amount of wastes like smoke and sludge. Mobile towers give out harmful radiations, which harm the environment.  Advancement in IT has enabled collaboration between these manufacturing companies and innovation laboratories to make environment friendly products, which reduce pollution (Bilbao-Osorio, Dutta & Lanvin, 2013). The manufacturing companies use IT to gain information about the green supply chain management to make eco-friendly products. The companies today use emails and social networking sites like, Facebook to spread awareness about their eco-friendly methods. As a result, they can obtain more support from stakeholder groups like the customers, financial institutes and shareholders. The shareholders pump in more investments while customers buy their products and generate huge revenue. Thus, IT helps the companies to get positive return on their huge investments in producing eco-friendly products (Przybylski & Weinstein, 2013). IT allows governments and environmentalists to conduct environmental tests to examine the conditions of various eco systems. The international environmental relate television channels like Animal Planet today support these researches, spreading awareness. IT enables these specialists to collaborate with each other, like armies and governments to conduct risky and expensive experiments on environment. They spread awareness to get support from the public (Hafez, Aziz & Elalim, 2014). The environmentalists can conduct experiments on the rainforests to test their flora and fauna. They spread the information on the findings of their research and their future effects the dwindling of rainforests can have on the earth. IT has enabled the scientists spread awareness about environment using digital technology like e-magazines and blogs. This has contributed to raising awareness about environment and reduced environmental pollution.

Impact on Commerce

Information technology has made communication and transport between people across the globe faster and easier. The 60s saw development of computer hardware technology, which enabled tablets to have the efficiency of large desktop. Invention of mobile phone in 1960s revolutionized communication. However, the users could only speak and send written messages on those mobile phones. The advancement in ICT led to advent of smart phones, which are combination of smart phones and mini computers. This invention in IT is helping in performing multiple tasks like speaking, sending written messages and communicating through applications. The advancements like internet and communication hardware have benefitted people in several ways. They can perform multiple activities on the same device, which saves them from incurring several devices to perform several functions (Gungor et al., 2013). The rise smart phone sale proves that people are buying IT gadgets to avail their multiple benefits.  The benefits users derive by using these gadgets lead to the increase in demand of smart phones (Hashim, 2015). The advancements in IT and the increase in demand for technological have made it very profitable. It has attracted multinational companies to the IT, proving benefits of IT and gadgets (Coskun, Ozdenizci & Ok, 2013). The multinational companies like Apple today support researches in the field of IT to develop more sophisticate advanced machines. These gadgets are capable of performing multiple functions. People can shop and book hotels. These facilities have made life more comfortable for the elder citizens who have problems in travelling to pay bills and make purchases. It can be concluded, that IT has benefitted people in multiple ways. IT has emerged into a billion dollar industry dominated by multinational companies like IBM. An area, which has benefitted tremendously by advancements of IT is physical communication between places. People today can today view hotels, flights and trains online of distant tourist destinations.

One of the most spectacular applications of IT is manufacturing goods in the companies all around the world. Banks using software and satellite connections can help in transfer of money from one part of the world to another within no time. They can ensure continuous flow of money towards production activities.  They then use IT to communicate these pieces of information to the stakeholders using their official websites, print media and digital newspapers (Rickerson, et al., 2013). The companies can today use the most advanced technology to manufacture goods. The companies today are able to offer cheap and high quality goods by tehri integrated manufacturing systems. Development in IT in the recent period has made applications like electronic fund transfer facilities. This has revolutionized money flow in the global economy. A remarkable advancement in information technology in the field of commerce, which took place in the late 2000s, is advent of electronic commerce or ecommerce. For example, the companies today advertise their goods on the ecommerce portals globally. Ecommerce portals also enable companies to obtain raw materials from all over the world to ensure a high variety of products, Just in time(JIT) project management facilities supported by IT has enabled companies to manage large scale manufacturing  goods projects. They can advertise the products with their features, benefits, prices and even compare them with similar products. The customers on the other hand can view, order and pay for products, which are not available locally (Hashim, 2015). This round the clock availability of a huge number of goods on the IT portals gives rise to immense flow of products and cash from customers and companies which again encourages further manufacture of goods. Thus, development of information technology has enabled strengthening of the global economy by this advanced manufacturing technology using in making goods(Bhateja, Urooj & Misra, 2015).          

Impact on Environmental Protection

The advancements in information technology has revolutionized the world and benefitted man. Today IT helps in every aspect of human life in terms of both quality and quantity. IT applications like electronic money transfer have made movement of money in the global economy faster. The advancements of IT like online booking facilities have made it possible for people to book tickets and hotels. IT enables transport departments to gain information about travelling conditions like heavy rain, which makes it possible to avoid accidents and prevent loss of human lives. The advancements of IT have led to emergence of electronic commerce, which has made it possible for companies to advertise and sell their good all over the world. The customers can again buy goods from all over the world. Thus, IT has accelerated flow of manufacturing of goods and flow of money globally, which has strengthened global economy.

References:

Bhateja, V., Urooj, S., & Misra, M. (2015). Technical advancements to mobile mammography using nonlinear polynomial filters and IEEE 21451-1 NCAP information model. IEEE Sensors Journal, 15(5), 2559-2566.

Link: ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6942156/

Bilbao-Osorio, B., Dutta, S., & Lanvin, B. (2013, April). The global information technology report 2013. In World Economic Forum(pp. 1-383).

Link: www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GITR_Report_2013.pdf

Bloom, N., Garicano, L., Sadun, R., & Van Reenen, J. (2014). The distinct effects of information technology and communication technology on firm organization. Management Science, 60(12), 2859-2885.

Link: pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1287/mnsc.2014.2013

Coskun, V., Ozdenizci, B., & Ok, K. (2013). A survey on near field communication (NFC) technology. Wireless personal communications, 71(3), 2259-2294.

Link: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/257675463_A_survey_on_Near_Field_Communication_NFC_technology

Gungor, V. C., Sahin, D., Kocak, T., Ergut, S., Buccella, C., Cecati, C., & Hancke, G. P. (2013). A survey on smart grid potential applications and communication requirements. IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, 9(1), 28-42.

Link: dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2504668

Hafez, S. M., Aziz, R. F., & Elalim, M. S. (2014). Critical Path Segments Method for Scheduling Technique. World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, International Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 1(12).

Link: https://scholar.google.com/citationsuser=pDd0NacAAAAJ&hl=ja

Hashim, J. (2015). Information communication technology (ICT) adoption among SME owners in Malaysia. International Journal of Business and Information, 2(2).

Link: www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S187704281500350X

Przybylski, A. K., & Weinstein, N. (2013). Can you connect with me now? How the presence of mobile communication technology influences face-to-face conversation quality. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 30(3), 237-246.

Link: journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0265407512453827

Rickerson, W., Hanley, C., Laurent, C., & Greacen, C. (2013). Implementing a global fund for feed-in tariffs in developing countries: A case study of Tanzania. Renewable Energy, 49, 29-32.

Link: journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0265407512453827

Samsung introduced 10 times as many phones as Apple last year, but its mobile division made half as much revenue. (2017). Business Insider. Retrieved 8 November 2017, from https://www.businessinsider.in/Samsung-introduced-10-times-as-many-phones-as-Apple-last-year-but-its-mobile-division-made-half-as-much-revenue/articleshow/57401333.cms