TWC Lesson 5

Overview/ Summary

This lesson provided an overview of ICT and world change. We learnt about the different channels in which ICT is able to reach the masses e.g. Mass Media, Internet, Wireless Technologies and discussed the extent to which ICT might be able to alleviate socio-economic problems in our society. Although ICT might seem like a viable option to solving our daily problems, helping firms get intricately assimilated into the business world, there are many dangers in using ICT because it opens the window for espionage and the invasion of privacy, and users to corrupting influences such as pornography. Nevertheless, we all agree that ICT is an inevitable stepping stone for any country that would like to close their digital divide, and if implemented with the “right” regulation, the benefits of ICT would outweigh its costs.

Interesting Observations

ICT has changed how the media communicates with its audience and even how people may connect with each other. Media today is not one-directional where information flows from media to audience (e.g. TV, radio and newspapers), through ICT, there is a more bi-directional flow of information where people now become part of the news. For instance, forums like twitter and facebook allow for instant spread of information amongst users just through a simple update of status or comment. Platforms like Wikipedia allow users to share information on a topic of their interest which might be newer and more relevant as compared to old-fashioned journals that usually take some time to be published, by which information may not be as accurate anymore. Yet, the question of credibility is being raised. No doubt information comes faster, they are not necessarily accurate. Thus, I believe that because of this, journals and the like are still given value in this fast-paced world because we know that when we pick up a journal, it has been vetted, edited and looked through by many parties before being approved for printing. Hence information should be roughly accurate.

There exist many viewpoints on whether ICT is beneficial or detrimental to world change. I choose the former simply because ICT has honestly made my life much easier and definitely more efficient. (no doubt on bad days, technology really can be a pain in the a**) I believe ICT is the catalyst that facilitates the knowledge revolution but I still think that economic stability and growth is imperative to the development of any country. It is only with economic growth that people will have the finances to implement ICT. And finally, it takes a winning combination of both to make a substantial impact. ICT might not directly contribute to poverty alleviation because there must be the basic foundation of education for people first, before they can efficiently use ICT. If no such training and education is available, ICT will not alleviate poverty or close the digital divide. If ICT were to be implemented as a means to provide modern democracy, it would depend very much on the country in question. I feel that in Singapore today, although there is an increase in the number of forums that openly discuss issues within the country, it is still highly regulated and often viewpoints might not transcend beyond a certain extent.

ICT may not be proficient in all of the aspects mentioned in the slides, but it definitely will impact them to some extent. Yet, ICT might not have reached its peak, and there are definitely areas that need to be regulated. Nevertheless, as Bill Gates puts it,

"The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the ineffiiency."
-Bill Gates -

For now, we shall work on improving the automation to be applied to this "efficient operation".

Issues for discussion

We have surfaced that ICT today is not being regulated to reach its optimum level but what do we deem as its optimal level, how do we know that ICT has/ has not reached its peak level? What type of regulations for ICT are we talking about?

Ratings for this lesson
7/10