Nowadays our society evolves so rapidly that sometimes it is hard to predict what will be in the nearest future. Technological progress has never been so rapid and everyday brings some innovation. One of the most important roles in the modern world play computers and information technologies without which a modern post industrial or informational society cannot exist. At the same time, computers and information technologies improved many aspects of our life but along with improvement they brought great changes. Now due to computer networking and introduction of contemporary information technologies new electronic forms of communication and business appeared and it results in appearance of new social phenomena which have to be thoroughly studied and analyzed. Technological changes influenced practically all spheres of our life it concerns individuals’ identity, social behavior, human psychology, economical and political aspects, and social structure though the latter is rather prospective metamorphose than actual in spite of the fact that first changes may be already observed. Such a situation provokes many ideas which may be quite radical and vary from unbelievably optimistic to dramatically pessimistic. However, logical analysis of the recent trends in society and technological progress permit us to make certain presupposition. Now it is evident that new information technologies and computers change each individual and the whole society at large. Some specialists even speak about ‘electronic society’ and I don’t mention such things as e-commerce that have already become quite ordinary. As for the structure of the society and the evaluation of social values it is obvious that in the nearest future and, to certain extent, now information and knowledge are the most precious things and in the post industrial society the most valuable and influential workers will be those who possess both information and knowledge. Moreover, technicians play more and more important role in modern society and economy they provide the progress and make it inevitable, consequently they will create not just technological innovations but they will create and shape the new world. In my work I am going to focus my attention on the influence of computers and information technologies on society, individuals’ identity and personal life, and economical consequences of information era.
First of all, I would like to start with the influence of modern technologies and wide use of computers on individuals’ personal life. Whitaker in his book “The End of Privacy: How Total Surveillance Is Becoming a Reality” tries to trace a gradual lost of personal privacy through the growing degree of surveillance caused by different reasons. The author also tries to forecast the future prospects of this trend. However, in my opinion, he is a bit subjective and influenced by his predecessors who predicted the evaluation of our society to totalitarian and totally surveyed one. From the very beginning, along with the brief historical review of different surveillance agencies, the author refers to the 18th c. Jeremy Benthom’s “The Panopticon”, than we may trace ideas of Orwell’s “1984”, and finally Whitaker comes to the theory of ‘Virtual Feudalism’. Despite he denies the ideas of Benthom and Orwell as unrealistic, their influence on his views seems to me obvious. Anyway, the author believes that surveillance will be an important and inevitable part of the future society. On analyzing data about the information stored in different database, he comes to the conclusion that this information stored by both private and public entities is done for two main purposes: “1) risk evaluation and exclusion and 2) consumer identification and inclusion” (Whitaker, 125). He estimate that people agree to scarify their privacy for the sake of being a part of society, in order to increase their purchasing power and acceptance into social groups, otherwise they would be excluded and couldn’t lead the way of life other members of modern society do. The author also points out that people are ready to accept video surveillance for security purposes of both public and private space. So, he comes to the idea that “earlier Panopticons always engendered resistance. Today’s Panopticon is more subtle, more flexible, more participatory more consensual” (Whitaker, 152). He even estimates that such surveillance is useful and according to Whitaker it may be ‘multidirectional’. In other words, people may not only be surveyed but can also survey themselves by getting information from a great amount of various sources that could permit to control those in power. Consequently, such “two way transparency will result in a shifting of power from the state and to the people” (Whitaker, 157). And finally, he remarks about the theory of ‘Virtual Feudalism’, which implies reinforcement of large companies due to weakening of the government, “business realizes that it needs government regulation and therefore will not seek to replace government” (164-165). However, an attentive reader may find some questionable points in his work. Whitaker mainly states that people are satisfied and accept surveillance and actual state of affairs but, in my opinion, his weak point is the fact that he does not admit the possibility of people’s dissatisfaction and its consequences.
In this respect the book of Sherry Turkle “Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet” may be viewed as a possible explanation why people will remain satisfied. The author focuses on the problem of individuals’ interaction on so-called MUDs or role-play games on the Internet and the general influence of such games on people’s identity and behavior. In her study she reveals that people playing MUD games project their perception of the game on real life, i.e. they see reality the same way they see the games they play and she calls their experience as ‘postmodern way of knowing’ hat according to Turkle “makes social knowledge into something that we may navigate much as we explore the Macintosh screen and its multiple layers of files and applications” (135). For such people real life is nothing more than just one more game to play and as Turkle says about it “MUD players can develop a way of thinking in which a life is made up of many windows and ‘RL’ (i.e. real life) is only one of them” (137). Another dangerous and misleading conviction that MUD players might have is the belief that they can realize all their fantasies. As a result of such interpretation of reality and self-perception in the real world lead to the shift of interests of such people. Real and imaginary world seem for them to be equally important or even worse when virtual world is more important than reality. Naturally, it leads to apathy, especially political, and consequently people become more obedient and less interested who they are governed by because “MUDs blur the boundaries between self and game, self and role, self and simulation. One player says, ’You are what you pretend to be… you are what you play” (142). Thus, such a situation threatens to turn our world into a big playroom where people live in their fantasies and ignore the surrounding reality. However, such forecast seems to be too pessimistic and as we know practically the same apprehension caused the dawn of television and now TV is replaced by computers. Still we can’t ignore such warnings but I would rather look at this problem from the psychological point of view. I admit that some people may live in a pretended world but they just need a psychological help and they shouldn’t crash their computers.
Whereas the ideas suggested by Heather Menzies seem to me more persuasive. According to her the influence that computers and information technologies have on people and human conscious may be very serious. She estimates that we may already observe the impact of mass media and information technologies on people. She explain the existing indifference and unawareness of people by individuals’ reliance on the corporate-controlled mass media that form our view on the event in the real world and our beliefs because these mass media are our main source of information about the world. She claims to overcome this dependence and she says: “resistance starts at the level of perception” (Menzies, 137) and “the struggle to control the technologies of the new economy is a struggle to control perception” (Menzies, 14). It worth noting that she contrasts computers and people and she compares this situation with the rapid industrial development in Europe when people and machines competed with each other and human labor was replaced by machines. According to Menzies practically the same situation is with computers which replaced people and as the author states they are one of causes of unemployment. Consequently, she appeals to people to gain control over their workplaces and “reassert meaningful public control” (134). However, I think that it is a normal process when new more sophisticated technologies are introduced and, naturally, they replace people. That is why, if we take into account what have been said at the beginning, namely that information and knowledge play the key role in post industrial world, people shouldn’t adopt to new economical and social conditions of life, consequently, the author is absolutely right when she says that “the emerging information highway is becoming the axis of the new economy” (149).
Thus, I can make a conclusion that whether we want it or not computers are very important and they certainly will be an essential part of our life. They impact our identities, psychology, they are widely use in economical sphere of life. Distracting us from reality they may define economical and socio-political situation not only in one separate country but, due to a rapidly developing Internet and information technologies, in the whole world. Certainly we shouldn’t be very pessimistic or on the contrary too optimistic as some of the authors analyzed in my work are but still we must remember that computers and information technologies are a strong power in hands of human beings and but they are not more than machines and it is our task to define our reality, build up social relations and control politics keeping democratic traditions and guarding the law.
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