Impacts IT has had on Communities and Society

 

IT has had various different types of impacts on communities and society, both positive and negative, even still, IT has had a real significant impact on us and our everyday life. One of these impacts being on employment, employment within the industry has changed massively since the continuous development of IT. There has been an increase in employment within the IT industry as it progressively develops but also has had a negative impact on other jobs that machines and technology took over to automate and produce faster than humans can in factories. IT has also allowed us to connect with others globally and allowed us to keep in contact with our loved ones that may be living on the other side of the world or friends that left for work, education or even travel.

Although technology can be a good thing, sometimes it can be in the wrong hands and can be used maliciously to cause harm, fraud, cyber attacks ect. With this in mind we must take extra steps to ensure online safety  and make sure our data is being kept safe and not being stolen. On the other hand, with the advancement of technology it is possible to store data on “cloud” which is a very positive thing as some computers may have less storage and people may not be able to afford more storage. Furthermore, IT has massively changed on the local high street with more and more people deciding to order online instead of going in person. This has both positive and negative impacts on our communities and society. The positive thing being that when ordering online, there are more choices and variety to choose from which makes shopping online more efficient for customers as they don’t have to potentially waste time going in person to look for an item and not finding it. On the other hand, as the change of local high street shopping has shifted to online day-by-day, businesses have taken a hit and causing them to start to lose customers, start shutting down and lose profits. This is also another reason for people losing jobs on the high street.

Not all of IT is negative though, there has been many, many positive developments within technology which has impacted us positively. One of these examples is in the health & care industry, the developments in technology have allowed the health & care industry to advance and give communities and societies better health care advice and help people overcome diseases that maybe were thought to be 100% fatal a decade ago. With this in mind, we are surrounded by technology and we should use it to our advantage and keep it out of the wrong hands. This also plays a big part in our news industry and can be both negative and positive. Positive being that you can receive news easier and faster so that you are up to date with the worlds events, but can also be negative as there are a lot of false information out there which can mislead us and lead us to.