Tag Archives: Robert Reinhold

Information Technology strategy and Society

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Societies transformed from traditional “oral” nature where knowledge passed down from generation to another, up to now where we experience the tremendous complicated technology. Such transformations represent the normal cycle of human development throughout history.

The best advantage that resulted of writing invention through printing press technology was the emergency of practical method of keeping documents, rather than depending on memorizing “data” which is often exposed for loss.

I believe that writing invention was a turning point in human kind history; consequently, the key for all subsequent triumphs which finally has crowned by the creation of what so called “WWW”.

We should not be worried about the side effects of information technology which is- willy nilly- we would handle

Robert Reinhold in his article,”Study Says Technology Could Transform Society”, in New York Times has depicted and  anatomized most of potential side effects of such transformation, yet by balancing benefits and risks society might benefit a lot.

We should not be anxious and worried toward unanticipated influencers of technology, since we can activate anti actions using technology itself!

Technology is Making us Lazy

In both William Badke’s, Research Strategies: Finding Your Way Through the Information Fog, and  Robert Reinhold’s New York Times article entitled,”Study Says Technology Could Transform Society”, that although there is no denying the inevitable truth that the technological advances that have been made thus far have made society as a whole more prosperous , however, technology in its entirety has made us lazy.  According to Badke, he states that even though gatekeepers of modern society are still of importance, that ” on  the WWW, gatekeepers are no longer required.”  This is a huge uprising issue in particular to students, because without experts proof reading/editing these articles, all articles are now being questioned for liability. Often times students use the standard search engines such as Google or Bing  as opposed to a scholarly data base within their school’s library.  The downfalls to these search engines are their lack of accountability. The quality of one’s writing is diminished and the potential of that student is undermined. Like wise, in Reinhold’s article, he speaks of technology basically taking over the world; which was a spot on  prediction of what modern’s society would look like. In all, old customs from buying clothes to reading a book to acquire knowledge, has been tampered with due to the advancements in technology. Now, everything we want is at the edge of our fingertips.

Reinhold’s article gives an almost too accurate prediction.

While reading the New York Times article “Study says technology could transform society” by Robert Reinhold, I was amazed by how spot on some of their predictions were.  Especially when I read this “there will be a shift away from conventional workplace and school socialization. Friends, peer groups and alliances will be determined electronically, creating classes of people based on interests and skills rather than age and social class.” They basically predicted the whole social network phenomenon (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and etc.) and how people are now able to connect in new ways.  We are no longer bound by the old social constructs that they had in their time.  All you need now is a screen name/handle and you can talk to almost anyone who shares the same interests as you.  They even mentioned that there might be some unintended social side effects although at the time they did not know what it would be.  Unfortunately the side effect is a loss of some basic social skills, now someone will take their phone out in the middle of a conversation just to update their page.  Eye contact is slowly becoming a lost art, as more of us make it with our phone than with each other.  This article leaves me to wonder what side effect the next technological innovation will bring.