Do recent technological advances (eg the internet, databases) assure that future research will be of a higher quality, or of greater utility, than the past?
By
OLAOLU OKE
01/23/2014

Technological advancement has had a big role to play on all industries, such as: healthcare, education, marketing, etc., and has also impacted a lot on the world of research.
Basically, Technological advancement has made life easy and made information accessible at the tip of our fingers.

Research in the past

Research in the past was actually very tedious and took a lot of time and hard work. Researches often had to visit libraries to get books and journals for their literature review and other information needed. In cases where a library was not well equipped, they would have to go to several libraries to get the information they need for their research.
Also, for a research that would entail a survey or questioner distribution, the researchers had to travel wide and far, depending on what their work of research entailed; to distribute paper surveys and interview people
For example, an American who wants to research about "The Language Barrier in Africa" would have to travel to Africa to get adequate information for his research work.

Introduction of Technology to research
The introduction of technology has brought a lot of changes and advantages to research in the following areas:
Data collection improvements
Technology has made it possible to have access to a constant stream of new software to collect data. Beyond the traditional methods such as paper surveys, interviews, and focus groups, technology enables researchers to be much more targeted in what they measure and how quickly feedback can be received. For example, there is a powerful tool called "the mood-sensing retail device" it