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3RD POSTING : THE IMPACT OF ICT ON SOCIETY

Hi guys…..Now, I come up again with more information in my third posting which we were assigned to go to Tun Sri Lanang (PTSL) and get information from online databases hosted at the Tun Sri Lanang Library. We were given five topics which we should choose one of it and find information about it from online databases such as EBSCO host, GEMA, LISA Net, NSTP e-media and SCOPUS. I went to Tun Sri Lanang Library and find information for the topic that I choose from online databases such as SCOPUS, EBSHOST and so on. The topic that I choose to find information from online databases is “The Impact of Using ICT on society”.
First and foremost, I would like to define my topic that is “The impact of using ICT on society”. The word “ICT” actually stands for “INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY”.
There are several advantages of ICT on society which provides online services such as online transactions, online shopping and online banking. At the same time, ICT gives great impacts on society such as employment issues, increased leisure time, changing working patterns, security and privacy of data, health and safety issues.
Firstly, I would like to explain about the positive impacts of ICT on society before I move on to the negative impact of ICT on society. ICT provides online services to society which we can use the Internet in many ways. It is very useful for finding out information. Therefore, there are different types of online services such as online transactions, online shopping and online banking.
Online transactions are now available in many ways. For an example, at local government level in the UK, people can pay their council tax, parking fines and many more items. There are other services which can be paid for at national level, such as car tax. Some of these services require payment online, such as applying for a tax disc online, booking a practical test online and so on. Many banking services called card payment gateway systems are now available.
Secondly, ICT also provides society to do online shopping which they no need to go out for shopping and spend more time on it. The first instance of companies allowing their customers to purchase products using the Internet is Pizza Hut which offered customers to order pizzas on its web page. An online can be called by other names such as Internet shop, web shop or online store. It is an electronic commerce (e-commerce) application that business can use with each other or they can offer services or goods directly to customer. Online shopping has become very popular for many reasons such as items are usually cheaper online, customers can compare products, customer can shop at a convenient time for them and so on.
Lastly, many customers are using online banking because of the convenience of banking at any time of day and the reduced amount of the time and fuel costs incurred when travelling to and from the bank. Online banking usually offers such features as up-to-date bank statements, bill payment, transfer of funds between the customer’s different accounts and loan applications.
Let’s move on to the negative impact of ICT on society. Firstly, let’s look at the employment issues. The introduction of online services has had two effects on employment. Some staff has lost their jobs because the use of ICT has replaced the need for some types of worker, for an example shop assistants and bank clerks. However, the other effect has been an increase in the need for workers in more technical aspects of work. There are many areas where the use of ICT in the fields of business and commerce has generally caused unemployment. For instance, many car workers have lost their jobs when car manufacturing companies have introduced the use of robots into factories.
Another impact of ICT on society is increased leisure time. The effect of the use of online services is to allow the possibility of workers working fewer hours. Many people think that the increased use of online services has caused a reduction in the number of hours employees are required to work. However, there is evidence to suggest that the use of ICT has not provided more leisure time.
Further more, the impact of ICT on society changing working patterns. ICT developments including the increased use of online services, has increased the amount of flexible working that organizations can offer their workers. Flexible working is any working pattern that can be decided by the employee and is not normal ‘8 to 5’ routine. In this selection, we will be looking at different types of flexible working such as part-time working, job sharing, flexible working hours, working from home and many more.
Apart from that, another impact of ICT on society is the security and privacy of data. When we talk about the confidentiality of personal data we mean that information should only seen by those people who are authorized to see it. Encryption is the main ICT technique used to ensure the confidentiality of data in online systems. To read an encrypted file requires a secret key or password that enables the person to decrypt it. Many banking systems do not consider that the use of a single password provides sufficient protection against the interception of data by hackers.
Lastly, ICT brings impact on society’s health and safety issues. In case of health, ICT will increase in repetitive strain injury. It is felt that the increased use of online services many have an effect on the degree of repetitive strain injury (RSI) that computer users will experience. The two most common RSI ailments experienced by computer users are Carpal tunnel syndrome, the name given to a condition causing pain in the forearm and wrist which affects women more than men. In case of safety, many safety problems are caused by the use of a large number of computers close to each other, as is particularly the case at online centers. This leads to a need for increased safety measures, against electrocution, fire and other dangers.
As a conclusion, the ICT has become very common nowadays. It brings both negative and positive impacts. For further information about the impact of using ICT on society access the following web sites. Thank you.

For further information:-
http://www.cambridge.org/uk/education/international/cic/alevel/pdf/Applied_ICT_CH_03.pdf

http://www.ocr.org.uk/Data/publications/units/OCR-Nationals_Business_and_ICT_Level_I_unit21.pdf