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 How ICT has an Effect on Society 

Introduction
ICT and the impact of ICT on individuals, communities and society is significant and has changed the way we live our daily lives, and what we do to entertain ourselves, how we shop, how we communicate, how we learn, how we do our banking, how we socialise. ICT impacts all of our daily lives in one way or another. People, individuals, communities and society at large has changed with the growing emergence and advent of ICT. Below I will outline and describe how ICT has impacted different sectors of our society. After outlining the impact of ICT systems on the different facets of our society I will go on to describe the positive and the negative impacts ICT has had on the different aspects of our society.

ICT impact on banking
The way we do our banking has changed so much in the last twenty years. We can view our balance, check all our latest transactions and transfer money between accounts all online. We can order statements, pay bills and carry out all other banking enquiries all online. Paying for items has been made easier through contactless payments. The introduction of chip and pin has made it easier to pay for goods by your bank card. Many shops provide a cashback policy where the customer can ask for cash back which will be automatically debited from the customer’s bank account. Payments can be made over the phone. We can do this from the comfort of our own home through a PC connected to the internet or an internet café or through using our mobile phones. ICT and the emergence and growth of ICT has changed the way we do our banking. Gone are the days of going to your local bank to withdraw some money, (this can be done through the use of ATM’s) or pay a bill or transfer money between accounts. These can all be done online from the comfort of our own home. So the advent and emergence of Information Communications Technology systems has completely changed the way we do our banking.

ICT impact on Education.
ICT has completely and drastically changed the way Education is imparted and the way our children are taught in school, colleges and universities. All student and child records are kept on a database from attendance, academic achievements’, grades to any special circumstances the school should be aware of for instance any medical conditions the school should be aware of. Parent’s addresses and contact telephone numbers and details are all kept on a database. The emergence of the Internet and the use of ICT technology has opened up a new field and teaching subject for students to specialise and become proficient in. Computer Science is a broad and extensive discipline in which children at school and students at colleges and universities can study and become skilled in. As ICT has become more prevalent individuals and groups of people in society need to become well versed in how to use this new and emerging technology. So this has opened up new fields and areas in ICT such as programming, web design and development, networking, software development and cyber security. Also as the emergence of the internet has opened up new avenues of Education such as Distance Learning and online tutorials for individuals and students to become more IT literate.

Impact on Healthcare and Hospitals
Healthcare and Hospital records and procedures have changed and become more automated with patient records being kept on databases and computer systems. This has made healthcare becoming more efficient and systemised and has changed the way in which patients are treated and operations and surgery carried out. ICT technology has greatly assisted in radiology (Computer assisted radiology and surgery CARS). Also developments in ICT technology has made new advances in Ophthalmology like laser eye surgery and cataract surgery. A history of each patient’s medical conditions are kept on computers with a unique NHS number with different areas of the healthcare sector communicating with each other through the internet and local area networks (LAN’s). You are informed of Doctors Appointments through text messages and repeat prescriptions and doctors’ appointments can be booked online as well as being able to view your medical records that are kept by your doctor’s surgery. So the face of the healthcare industry has changed considerably and significantly with the introduction of ICT technology and ICT systems into Doctors Surgeries and hospitals.

Impact on Shopping and Retail
In the past people shopped in High streets and markets. People would shop by going into a shop, a physical building built with bricks and mortar. They could physically touch and feel the goods before they bought them. The rise of online shopping has been made possible by the internet. The growth and the widespread availability of the internet has made online shopping as normal and accepted as going to the supermarket. With the growth of companies like Amazon and EBay online shopping has become as popular as bread and butter. Amazon the online American owned giant sells everything from kids toys to smart T.V’s, clothes and jewellery as well as 20 million items in sports and outdoor wear and over four million office products. You can even do your grocery shopping online e.g. Asda, Tesco, and Morrison’s. People browse shops online, they pay by credit or debit card or through PayPal in a growing number of online retail outlets and get their goods delivered to their home by post. It’s as simple as that. EBay was started in 1995 by Pierre Omidyar in his San Jose living room as a favour to his girlfriend. It was formed as an idea for collectors to buy and sell Pez dispensers and now it has spiralled out of control as a marketplace for people to buy and sell goods and services to people all over the world. EBay owner Mr Omidyar still owns almost 10 per cent of eBay, and Forbes estimates his net worth at $8.5bn (£5.3bn). Anybody can buy and sell on EBay. You register online for an account and you can start buying and selling anything from books, DVD’s, CD’s to cars and trampolines. EBay is free to buyers but sellers are charged a small fee for selling products on EBay after a number of free listings. When a seller sells an item the seller is charged 9% of the selling price to a maximum of 50 dollars. EBay has become a house hold name and people buy and sell things on EBay every day. Even groceries can be ordered online and delivered to your door with the major supermarkets like Asda, Tesco’s, Sainsbury’s and Morrison’s all having online stores.

Impact on Business and Work
The way businesses operate and the way we work has changed since the growth in ICT technology. Many jobs which were done by people in the manufacturing industry and the industrial sector have now been replaced by machines and robots. Many jobs have been lost due to ICT technology doing the jobs more efficiently and with minimum cost. Computer Aided Design and industrial Robots have replaced many jobs that humans used to do. Jobs that were too dangerous or too menial and boring are now being carried out by Industrial robots. Due to ICT technology there has been job losses, but conversely many jobs have been created. With Staff needing to know how to operate and maintain the ICT technology, like industrial robots and computer aided design machines. Robotic arms can lift very heavy objects or carry out very delicate operations like manufacturing microchips. Robots can work 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. They work faster than humans and don’t make mistakes like humans do. Examples of jobs that robots and computers carry out in industry include welding cars in car factories, paint spraying cars in car factories, manufacturing microchips and lifting heavy car parts. The use of computers and ICT technology has meant that information about customers can be held on databases and customer information can be collected, stored and retrieved on computers. There is less paper based communication. Many businesses now choose to communicate through Email and the internet. With the growth of ICT businesses have become more streamlined, efficient and more cost effective. Always coming up with new ways to sell us their products. Analysis of databases carried out by computers targets specific customers and market advertising material to them. With the growth of the internet businesses can also diversify into Ecommerce and many businesses also advertise online. The way we work has also changed. With the advent of the internet many people now choose to work from home. They work from home and are in constant communication with the office through the Internet, Email and phone and video conferencing. So the emergence of ICT technology has completely changed the way we work and the way businesses work.

Impact on information, libraries and the growth of the Internet
Computers are an integral part of our daily lives in today’s technological and digital world. We can’t imagine a world without computers in today’s world. But this wasn’t always the case. In the past everything was recorded on paper. Information was propagated through books, journals and newspapers. All records and transactions were paper based. The beginnings of the modern computer started in the nineteenth century with an English maths professor by the name of Charles Babbage who designed the Analytical Engine in 1837. It was on this design that the basic framework of the computers of today are based on. The image below shows a picture of the Analytical Engine designed by Charles Babbage. Because of a lack of funding the Analytical Engine was never built while Charles Babbage was still alive. It wasn’t until 1910 that Henry Babbage Charles Babbage’s youngest son was able to complete a portion of the machine which was able to perform basic calculations.

With the growth of the computer, information could be stored in files on a computer and the computer could perform many analytical calculations through databases like MS Access and Excel. So libraries started to store, collect and retrieve information on books and journals through computers and computer databases like MS Access. Books could be borrowed and returned or re issued through self-service RFID portals. All books had barcodes on them so they could be tracked on computers e.g. if they had been borrowed or they were in stock on library shelves. Computer stations were freely available in libraries so customers could do work and research on computers and look up information online. Libraries have started lending out multimedia resources like music CD’s, Films on DVD’s and computer games. ICT and communications technology has had a major impact on libraries making more services available and streamlining information on books, journals, periodicals and information systems as a whole.

We live in an information society. Where ICT technology has made information freely available. We live in the information age and Information about our shopping habits, our preferences in lifestyle, our likes and dislikes, our political preferences, our religious persuasions. All this information is collected on us by businesses, marketing companies and some government agencies, and held on computers. This proliferation in information has been made possible by the introduction of computers and ICT technology. The biggest success in this era of ICT and digital technology has been the success and prevalence of the Internet (the World Wide Web). The internet has made the biggest impact on our society and changed the way we live, work and play. It has changed the way we shop, the way we work, the way we bank, and the way we communicate and socialise. Individuals, businesses and government bodies communicate through Email, Skype and text messages. We socialise online on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp and we play games through games consoles like Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo switch. Information on literally anything and everything is available on the internet. The validity and the correctness of this information can be questioned in some cases but the internet can be an invaluable resource when doing research on most subject fields. You just have to be careful and check the authenticity of the material by verifying your sources. It has become a part and parcel of our daily lives that when we want to find out information on a particular thing we say “just google it”. The search engine google is an encyclopaedic monster of knowledge and by far the most popular search engine on the World Wide Web. In 2013 latest statistics quoted google stating that the web had 30 trillion unique individual pages. In 2008 google is reported to have said that the web had one trillion pages:

The Indexed Web contains at least 4.4billion pages (Sunday, 30 September, 2018).

Conclusion
ICT has definitely changed our society. It has changed the way we work, the way we learn, and the way we communicate. Computers and ICT technology have reinvented and reshaped the world we live in. ICT technology has revolutionised our world and made a big impact on how we live our life. ICT technology and computers are here to stay. The way we work, shop and play has changed significantly since the dawn of the computer age. Our culture and our lifestyle has changed to reflect the growing emergence of computers and the internet. We as a society need to become more computer literate and embrace information communications technology. But one thing is for sure that the impact of ICT technology on our society cannot be ignored and we must accept that.