...Write an 1,050- to 1,400-word essay on technology and social change, covering the following: Provide an introduction that defines both technology and social change and discusses how they are related. Discuss the impact of the personal computer, cellular phones, and the internet on society. Using the three major sociological perspectives, describe the equilibrium model, the digital divide and cultural lag in relation to these technologies and social change. Include how technology has influenced social epidemiology, health and the environment. Explore a recent or emerging form of technology and discuss its potential benefits or consequences for society. Provide a conclusion that summarizes key points. Cite at least three academic, peer-reviewed sources and two popular magazines. Format the paper consistent with APA guidelines. Submit your assignment to the Assignments tab.Write an 1,050- to 1,400-word essay on technology and social change, covering the following: Provide an introduction that defines both technology and social change and discusses how they are related. Discuss the impact of the personal computer, cellular phones, and the internet on society. Using the three major sociological perspectives, describe the equilibrium model, the digital divide and cultural lag in relation to these technologies and social change. Include how technology has influenced social epidemiology, health and the environment. Explore a recent or emerging form of technology and discuss...
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...The Digital Divide INF 103 Computer Literacy Sean O’Leary, DM, MBA 4/21/14 The digital divide is a phrase used to address the gap between those who have ready access to the information and communication technologies, the knowledge that they provide access to, and those who do not. In the global digital information age those who are either unable to access the internet are increased disadvantage in their access to information. In most western nations government policies are being established which attempt to ensure that all citizens have the opportunity to access and effectively use the internet, in order to enable them to participate fully in the educational, social and economic activities. While it can be argued that several factors contribute to the digital divide, economics appears to be the biggest contributing factors for access to the Digital Opportunity Index. The Introduction to Digital Literacy, explains the digital divide as related to threat that results from groups of underprivileged people not having access to computers and the internet. According to Bowles, 2013, the fact that some people have easy access to the benefits computers provide; while many others are cut off from them, is considered an ethical issue. The information rich are on one side, and those who are poor, living in underdeveloped countries, or who live in a rural area with no internet access on the other side. The number of homes in the United States with personal...
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...INF 101 Digital Divide: A Global and U.S. Problem September 9, 2012 Digital Divide: A Global and U.S. Problem It is hard to imagine a home without a cell phone, computer or internet access. Yet, this happens; not just in developing countries, but here in the United States. This is often referred to as the digital divide. When a country’s citizens do not have access to or utilize digital technologies, it will negatively impact their education and economic stability. Digital divide being defined as the gap between those who can use information technology effectively and those who cannot is just one of a range of discrepancies, national and international, urban and rural, rich and poor, which afflicts low income country’s (Brooks, S., et al, 2005, Pg. 270). The digital divide impacts more than just one’s ability to shop online. Not having access to the latest technologies greatly impacts a countries survival. By increasing access to important and educational information through electronic resources a country can impact its economic future and growth. If citizens are afforded access to improved educational resources, they will benefit by developing a well-educated workforce (Brooks, S., et al, 2005, Pg. 270). Achieving this access to technology and supporting education will need to be made available to all. Before we look at this issue in the United States, let’s take a look at the issue from a more global perspective. There have been numerous studies focused...
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...e-commerce domains, a way for users to stay connected with things like social media and an influx of the many other benefits it has to offer. The benefits alone display the impact the Internet has had on those that have been fortunate enough to be apart of the online community. Even though the Internet has had a profound impact by improving the lives of billions of individuals and being the driving force in business growth and economic development of many countries, the Internets vacancy in many parts of the world has serious consequences for the billions of individuals that are not connected, not to mention the world community as a whole. According to a report by McKinsey & Co. (2014), there are 4.4 billion people that are offline worldwide and 3.4 of those individuals offline live in just 20 countries. These billions of people that cannot access the Internet as easily as those more fortunate suffer from achieving a greater economic standing, education, social mobility, or other benefits that help improve overall life. This is not just a problem for those that aren’t as privileged, but for everyone whether they are connected or not. The input, opinions, and contributions from those who are not connected cannot be made to help better the world community until they are connected. It is crucial the digital divide that separates the fortunate and unfortunate is bridged for it is consistently widening. This research paper defines and...
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...Digital divide The digital divide is a term which is used to describe the difference between those who have the access to the information technology this involves mobile phones, internet, computers and television and those who do not have access to these services. The expression can also represent those who have the skills and expertise to use different types of technology. The digital divide can exist between those who are living in rural areas and those who are living in urban areas. Factors that can contribute to the digital divide are economic factor, geographical factor, and fear of technology. One of the factors that contribute to the digital divide is fear of technology as many people do not use technology due to them having less confident about their ability to use computer skills. Due to the lack of confidence in which some people may show this will create digital divide between technology and themselves this means that they will find it harder to access the internet. As well as being able to find jobs. Another aspect that will result in a fear of technology is due to people fearing that others around them will laugh at them which mean that a person will have a low self esteem when trying to use technology. Furthermore factor that it’s the main issue that why people fear technology is due to people being scared of hackers and computer fraud. Overall a fear in technology will result in digital divide due to people not using technology which will mean that they will...
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...advanced methods the world has entered into a modern era of communication. Some further examples of these technologies include photo sharing, video sharing, data sharing, blogs, social networks, podcasts and internet calling to name a few. These technological advancements directly impact our civilizations, changing our cultural trends and reshaping our social perceptions. The media influences the society by presenting persuasive messages to the people, changing people’s thoughts about their appearance, values and behaviors. There is a measurable digital divide between the haves and the have nots in society on both a domestic and global level. The digital divide is a social issue referring to differing amounts of information available to populations. It became a popular term in the 1990’s among scholars, policy makers and advocacy groups. The digital divide includes more than just media concerns. This is because technology is everywhere around us. These areas include, literacy, economic groups, rural growth, disabilities, restrictions on freedom, and the access to basic telephone service. When these factors are working in combination they work together to erode the flow of growth towards bridging the digital divide. There are some places in the world where technology has not yet developed enough to successfully navigate the world of modern communication techniques. In some places...
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...INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY JOURNAL ASSIGNMENT THE DIGITAL DIVIDE The digital divide, simply put, is the gap between those people and communities with access to information technology and those without it. Yet, the fact is there are many divides, characterized by community, ethnic, economic, and age groups. These differences provide the basis for much research into internet use, and for the identification by some of the digital divide as an increasingly important feature of the growing economic and political gaps within and across 'developed' and 'developing' countries. The internet can be used as a tool for social, political and economic participation. Its facilitation of one-to-many and many-to-many communication and open publishing means that those affected by the divide may suffer disadvantages relating to education, employment and awareness of contemporary issues. The digital divide is now seen as a pressing international and consequently, much research and media attention have been directed at understanding who is affected and why. It is generally accepted that the digital divide is more than just an issue of access, and information technology training and literacy is needed to assist those affected by the digital divide, who can then create content relevant to their needs. Internet and computer use has undoubtedly increased in the United States and the digital divide may be smaller within certain populations. However, it remains a fact that poorer people may not be able...
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...Paper Though we have sunk our teeth really deep into the debilitating impacts of the digital divide problem – not only in Third-World countries, but also in the world at large – it is, however, still an inexhaustible topic. In the course of my research, I identified a couple articles which expounded on the aforementioned problem and how, in some cases, its presence could be indicative of acute negligence on the path of the leadership of some developing societies. The subsequent paragraphs, therefore, delve deep into the distinct, interesting perspectives from the articles gathered from my research. The first article covers Google’s attempt to bridge the digital divide, particularly in the United States. They also intend to work their way up to the other countries, such as Uganda, where the digital divide problem is supremely exacerbated by misappropriation of national resources and other social issues too. According to Brick, author of ‘Is Google Making the Digital Divide Worse?’, “… [Google] plans to spend $1.5 million this year to support computer science education around the world.” Therefore, it stands to reason that Google is heavily invested in tackling the digital divide problems. As a matter of fact, they envision a future in which “internet access will be a basic human right” (Brick). Thus, the end goal is to provide free WI-FI to developing societies, in Africa, plagued with the digital divide issue. This noble yet arduous undertaking has stirred controversies from...
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...and Social Change Tina Medina SOC/100 May 2, 2016 Andrea Harris Technology and Social Change This essay is about technology and social change, which are two things that have a huge impact in our world today. Ramey (2013), "Technology is a body of knowledge devoted to creating tools, processing actions and extracting of materials. We use technology to accomplish various tasks in our daily lives, in brief; we can describe technology as products, processes or organizations.” (para. 1). According to "Social Change Defined" (n.d.), "Social change refers to any significant alteration over time in behavior patterns and cultural values and norms.” (para. 1). Now that we have the definitions of technology and social change it is easy to see how they are related. No matter where or what you are going in your life it has been impacted my technology some way and have socially changed how we accomplish things in our everyday life. Some examples; checking out at the store can now be done through a self-checkout lane, you no longer need a map to travel with GPS available in your car, and people can work from home because of computers and advanced technology. All of these technology changes have made people learn new ways to complete tasks throughout their day and social change has occurred. Impact of Technology in Society Computers, cell phone, and the Internet have changed are lives drastically and is a part of everyone’s life in one form or another. Communication across the world...
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...written in 2009 requesting two million dollars to bridge the digital divide within our community. The grant was approved and a motion to coordinate a curriculum develop project has been accepted by the schools board committee. The goal of this project is to integrate technology among all middle schools that is at present an underserved community with limited access to technology. All stakeholders will be compiled into committees and a point of direct contact will be delegated for each group. After all decisions have been made and the implementation phase begins, the program will receive formative and summative evaluations that will continue to occur as for the duration of the program. Power in Technology The Houston County School District, plagued with a high crime rate, high unemployment, and extreme poverty, has found itself deficient of the skills needed to perform day-to-day-tasks. Many of the people in this community have been impacted by deficiencies passed down from generation to generation. For example, some of the women who currently receive governmental assistance (public housing, welfare and food vouchers) are descendents of those who received the same assistance. This sometimes extends as far back as 4 generations. With this taken into consideration the Houston County School District (HCSD) has hired, Bridgett Standring, to assemble a community wide committee to address the digital divide that now exists within its district. Learning Gap (wow...
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...The digital divide Jamie R. Harris INF103: Computer Literacy Author Note Instructor: Mathias Fok October 12, 2014 The "digital divide" refers to the fact that certain parts of the population have substantially better opportunities to benefit from the new economy than other parts of the population. Internet and computer use has undoubtedly increased in the United States and the digital divide may be smaller within certain population (Neilson 2006). The digital divide separates those who are information rich on one side from those who are poor, who live in an underdeveloped country, or who reside in a rural area with no Internet access. In 1990, 22% of all homes in the United States had a personal computer. This percentage increased to 63% by 2001, and in 2004, nearly 75% of all Americans had Internet access in their homes. While this is a high number, and growing daily (especially among multiple-computer households) there are still a significant number of people without computers or Internet access, and they are getting left behind in school and in the workplace (Bowles, M.D. 2013). Although the majority of Americans now have access to broadband, too many minorities, non-English speaking populations, and members of low income and rural communities remain disconnected. Addressing this digital divide goes beyond providing access to those without it. America must do more to ensure that those who are disconnected understand the need and value that broadband can bring to...
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...Programme (UNDP), and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). It was intended to help organisations coordinate multi-stakeholder activities, information exchange, the creation of knowledge, and the sharing of best practices. Globethics.net organised a workshop on the 29th of May, on "The Ethics of Digital Innovation", during which fundamental questions surrounding the many social, legal and economic repercussions of new digital technologies, and what power relations are at play were raised and addressed. With Prof. Dr Christoph Stückelberger as moderator, four panellists gave their views on some of the ethical issues that they have come across in their own fields, and where they saw the need for a great ethical understanding and awareness. Prof. Patrick-Yves Badillo, Director of Medi@LAB-Genève, with his presentation entitled "New digital divide, or squaring the circle?" intended to delve deeper into the preconceived notions that we might have surrounding the global ‘digital divide'. Digital technologies were seen as the key solution in the 1990s, and as a key factor for growth, competiveness and greater employment. Closing the digital divide, defined as the gap between those who have and those who do not have access to computers and to the internet, was set as a millennium goal and there was euphoria around the information society programme as a way to eradicate the difference between those that have, and those that have not. However, there has been an exponential...
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...INTRODUCTION: Digital divide is a term used to describe the inequality between technology haves and have nots. Sometimes, this can refer to the gaps between first world and third world countries, other times it's used to refer to differences among various population groups within an industrialized country (such as the United States). The technology being measured has been a moving target. Early news articles talked about general computer penetration among households. Then, as the Internet became more predominant, Internet access by individuals became the measure. Now, with free Internet access available through most public libraries, experts discuss the quality of access and usage. Even the term "digital divide" is controversial. "Digital" focuses attention on technology over other factors. "Divide" implies a distinct split. My opening sentence referred to haves and have nots, but can everyone really be separated into one group or the other, or is the difference more graduated?. BODY: Do you think that the digital divide is a major problem inside the United States: Why or why not? YES Digital Divide in the U.S. The Digital Divide is the gap between those who have the skills, access and resources for technology and those who do not. This divide is based on factors such as race and class. In order to have access to the Internet one must have the resource to own a computer and pay for Internet connection. Though comparatively inexpensive in the United States, the cost...
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...Is Digital Technology Harming Our Students? Barbara Rivera AIU Online Abstract In a society so technologically developed with users that range from children through old age rises a debate on whether technology is helpful to students in school. Surveys have shown that students spend numerous hours focusing on digital devices to communicate and access social media. With the over use of digital technology comes negative effects that hinder a student’s ability to grasp and retain knowledge. Furthermore, there is evidence that they also suffer from physical effects. Some argue that the ease of access of information is beneficial to the students, but studies show that student don’t utilize digital media appropriately. Is Digital Technology Harming Our Students? In today’s fast pace moving society people enjoy the convenience of digital technology all around them. From wireless laptops at home to tablets and smartphones on the go people have access to instant information and the ability to connect instantly through social media and messaging. As society moves forward in an ever-changing and evolving world of technology there raises questions to the impact technology has in different settings (i.e. school, work, and home). There have been many debates on the issue of whether technology is helpful or a hindrance in schools. While there are some pros to technology in the classroom, one has to look at the cons closely as society in general is becoming overwhelmingly dependent on...
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...SECTION A 1. What are the capabilities of the XO laptop (especially the latest version, XO-3)? How well-suited is this machine for developing countries? The One laptop per child organization (herein referred to as OLPC) was started by MIT’s Nicholas Negroponte in 2005. And the mission statement of the organisation is as follows: “To create educational opportunities for the world's poorest children by providing each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop with content and software designed for collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning. When children have access to this type of tool they get engaged in their own education. They learn, share, create, and collaborate. They become connected to each other, to the world and to a brighter future” Their aim was to provide this laptop at a cost of $100 and Mary Lou Jepson, as chief technical officer of OLPC had to consider a range of environmental factors for the design to be tailored to the particular needs of the developing world (Buchele, 2009:1). These challenges included electricity availability, extreme temperatures and the rugged physical environments of these countries (Brown, 2009:8). After several years of research and development, the result was the XO laptop featuring hardware innovation in power supply, display, durability and networking. The first model XO1 was launched in November 2007 at a cost of $188, failing at the initial goal price of $100 but it revolutionized the PC industry to be motivated...
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