History has shown that when new technologies have been introduced, many claim utopian ideals and fantasies about how they are going to shape the future. The words ‘life-changing’, ‘revolutionary’, and ‘radical’ are often thrown around. In 1989, Landgon Winner even coined a term describing this phenomena, “mythinformation: the almost religious conviction that a widespread adoption of computers and communications systems and communications systems along with easy access to electronic information will automatically produce a better world for human living” (p. 87). Information and communication technologies (ICTs), especially the internet, have influenced and affected both economic industries and consumers’ everyday lives. The profound effects
…show more content…
Does the internet bring something new to our everyday lives that was not there before? The internet in itself is not a completely ‘new’ technology. It was an evolution from other technologies like the videotex and other services like computer conferencing and electronic banking (Carey & Elton, 2009), and when it comes to everyday life, the internet does not introduce anything radically new either. T. V. Reed states that “the most common uses of ‘new’ technologies may be to do ‘old’ things. That is to say, new devices may most often just reinforce the same old existing patterns” ( 2014, p. 28). Advertising, newspapers, shopping, entertainment, networking, and gaming all existed and still exists outside of the world wide web. However, while these do exist outside of the web, the internet offers the user a new convenience and experience for these services. Thanks to services like Amazon.com and Amazon Prime, a person can now purchase a television and have it delivered to their house the next day with just a few clicks of their mouse. What would normally be a long shopping trip to multiple stores to compare prices and select the perfect model, has now transformed into a much quicker, more convenient process. Especially if you factor in those who don’t have cars or cars large enough to …show more content…
The internet wasn’t created overnight with one click of the mouse. Actually, the origins of the internet begin as early as the late 1960s, when the US government created a system called ‘ARPANET’ to enable communication between the military and scientist working for them. It wasn’t until 1990s was the ‘internet’ open to a public domain, and the interactive internet we know today, Web 2.0, wasn’t even created until the 20th century (Reed, 2014). The internet we use today underwent major evolutionary changes for over 50 years, and it will continue to transform well into the future. Looking at the history of the internet proves that in fact it was not a sudden and rapid invention, but one that carefully formed and underwent many transformations. When applying this to how it affects our everyday life, we know that from looking at the history, this was a slow introduction, and even once the internet was introduced and adopted, it still takes a while for ICTs to transform the habits and routines of people’s everyday lives (Silverstone, 1995). Silverstone even goes so far to conclude that “there can be no such thing as a technologically led revolution of everyday, if by revolution we mean a more or less uniform transformation of the way in which we conduct our activities in the daily round” (1995, p. 72). While many might argue that people have grown a
Does the internet bring something new to our everyday lives that was not there before? The internet in itself is not a completely ‘new’ technology. It was an evolution from other technologies like the videotex and other services like computer conferencing and electronic banking (Carey & Elton, 2009), and when it comes to everyday life, the internet does not introduce anything radically new either. T. V. Reed states that “the most common uses of ‘new’ technologies may be to do ‘old’ things. That is to say, new devices may most often just reinforce the same old existing patterns” ( 2014, p. 28). Advertising, newspapers, shopping, entertainment, networking, and gaming all existed and still exists outside of the world wide web. However, while these do exist outside of the web, the internet offers the user a new convenience and experience for these services. Thanks to services like Amazon.com and Amazon Prime, a person can now purchase a television and have it delivered to their house the next day with just a few clicks of their mouse. What would normally be a long shopping trip to multiple stores to compare prices and select the perfect model, has now transformed into a much quicker, more convenient process. Especially if you factor in those who don’t have cars or cars large enough to …show more content…
The internet wasn’t created overnight with one click of the mouse. Actually, the origins of the internet begin as early as the late 1960s, when the US government created a system called ‘ARPANET’ to enable communication between the military and scientist working for them. It wasn’t until 1990s was the ‘internet’ open to a public domain, and the interactive internet we know today, Web 2.0, wasn’t even created until the 20th century (Reed, 2014). The internet we use today underwent major evolutionary changes for over 50 years, and it will continue to transform well into the future. Looking at the history of the internet proves that in fact it was not a sudden and rapid invention, but one that carefully formed and underwent many transformations. When applying this to how it affects our everyday life, we know that from looking at the history, this was a slow introduction, and even once the internet was introduced and adopted, it still takes a while for ICTs to transform the habits and routines of people’s everyday lives (Silverstone, 1995). Silverstone even goes so far to conclude that “there can be no such thing as a technologically led revolution of everyday, if by revolution we mean a more or less uniform transformation of the way in which we conduct our activities in the daily round” (1995, p. 72). While many might argue that people have grown a