Effect of Ict

The Effects of ICT

How ICT impacts on individuals, organisations and society

The use of ICT has become increasingly widespread. At one time, only 40 or so years ago, ICT was for big business, major universities, and governments and few people thought that the time would come when ICT would be available to just about everyone.

Over the years ICT gradually spread to smaller business and lesser academic institutions, then home computers arrived, then laptops, then smaller mobile devices.

The Effects of ICT lens looks at how our lives have been changed, for better and for worse, by the impact of ICT.

It includes both positive effects and negative effects and looks at how individuals, organisations and society are affected.

There is also a section on the effect of ICT on education.

ICT can have a positive impact on people

Access to information. Possibly the greatest effect of ICT on individuals is the huge increase in access to information and services that has accompanied the growth of the Internet

Some of the positive aspects of this increased access are:

Better, and often cheaper, communications, such as VoIP phones and Instant Messaging.

EDUCATION

Improved access to education, e.g. distance learning and on-line tutorials.

New ways of learning, e.g. interactive multimedia and virtual reality.

JOB

New job opportunities, e.g. flexible and mobile working, virtual offices and jobs in the communications industry.

ENTERTAINMENT

In addition, the use of ICT to access information has brought new opportunities for leisure and entertainment, the facility to make contacts and form relationships, social networks, with people around the world, and the ability to obtain goods and services from a wider range of suppliers.

New tools, new opportunities. The second big effect of ICT is that it gives access to new tools that did not previously exist. A lot of these are tied into the access to information mentioned above, but there are many examples of...