Information Society - culture dimensions

If the internet told you that 2+2=5, would you believe it?

Well, most of us wouldn't fall for that one, but the fact is that the internet and multimedia is playing a huge part in changing and shaping our history, future and cultural heritage.

Today you can find everything on the internet, and I mean everything. I bet that you could probably spend your whole life beside your computer and use the internet and multimedia to do everything for you. You can shop from the internet, pay your bills, order a holiday, talk to your familiy and friends and work from your home etc. So if you wanted to, you would probably never have to leave your house. I think this is an important issue we have to deal with in the future. Or perhaps it's already here?

The internet and multimedia can become a threat to our social lives and to our culture. But the main issue is to find a way to co-exist, because we are both depending on each other.

I came across an interesting video on Youtube with Matt Thompson, an award-winning multimedia producer. And I have to say that he shares some very interesting thoughts with us:

Globalizaton and the new information society - or information age - we are living in, is changing our way to think about our culture and education. Information can be seen as a matierial foundation of the information age. From that point of view, culture can be seen as a constitutive element in the information age insofar as everything is framed and structured by information and communication media. Institutions and people make decisions and represent life through cultural codes and reality is always mediated through language. Culture is important in the information society in two different ways: information capitalism shapes culture with this explosion of the mass communication system, but on the other hand, local cultures have shaped the development and use of information and communication technology.

It is a fact that there is more information available around us than ever. The overflow of information is not only changing our thinking but also our relationship with information. But the relevance of this information seems to become less obvious. It is getting more and more difficult for people to check the relevance of information. What is true and what is false? Sadly, many of us rely blindly on the information they provides from the internet.

So, would you believe that 2+2=5??

Information Society - the concept and related notions

Do we live in era of change or in a changing era?

First some theory and history...

"Information society", "information age", "knowledge society", "post-industrial society" and "global village" are just a few of the terms that have been used in an attempt to identify and understand the extent of these changes. However the selected term in itself does not define content. Content emerges from usage within a specific social context. It is therefore expected that any term used to designate the society in which we live, is backed by the varied opposing projects of society.

Ok, the "child" has many names. So why have we ended up using the "information society"? In 1973, sociologist Daniel Bell introduced the notion "information society" in his book "The Coming of Post-Industrial Society". He believes that this society will mainly consist of theoretical knowledge and warns that knowledge-based services will be transformed into the central structure of the new economy and of an information-led society, where ideologies will end up being superfluosus. The expression reappears strongly in the 90s during the development of the World Wide Web and ICTs. And in 1995, it was included in the agenda of the G7 (now G8) meetings. Since then it has been addressed in forums of the European Community and the OECD, and been adopted by the US government and the UN.

Within this context, the concept "information society" as a political and ideological construct had developed under the direction of neo-liberal globalization, whose main goal has been to accelerate the establishment of an open and "self-regulated" world market.

Well, it didn't actually go as planned. The idea was, as I understand, to close the gap between the rich and the poor in the world. But the opposite happened. Increased pressure was placed on the developing countries at the end of last century by devolped countries who now already had adopted ICT infrastructure polices. Instead of trying to adapt themselves, developing countries had to leave the way free for investments by telecommunications and informatics companies, in search of new markets to maintain growth of earnings.

This is one of the reasons why I think that our "information society" does not benefit everbody (for now). On the other hand you could say that "a fight" always has a loser, but in this case I think that if we are going to include everybody in this society, we have to STOP, evaluate and perhaps take one step back. We have to give those who need it, the chance, the time and the economy to adopt to this society themselves. In my opinion this is one of the main tasks in trying to close the big (and growing) gap between the rich and the poor in this world!

The following video shows some interesting facts and how we can use ICT to help balance the inequity in developing countries around the world. 



I think we have to bring this with us to the classroom and to our children as well. Don't misunderstand me, the inclusion of ICT in today's education is crucial after my opinion, but sometimes I think we have to stop and slow things a bit down.

It's important that our children understands that it's not about what ICT can do for them, but what they can do for themselves with the help from ICT.

D'OH!

D'oh! : "Expressing frustration at the realization that things have turned out badly or not as planned, or that one has just said or done something foolish. Also (usu. mildly derogatory): implying that another person has said or done something foolish" (Oxford English Dictionary)

Hehe.. yes I'm a great fan of the Simpsons. But anyhow, theoretical the Simpsons may not add that much to our information society, but TV do. I think it's one of the most important medias we have, beside the internet to distribute information to the world.

So I think this is an good example of the "power" the television possesses as a medium. After pressure from the people, the Oxford English Dictionary, which is probably the most important and well knowned dictionary in the world, had to add the word D'oh in 2001.

Catch you later! Have a nice day :-D

Getting started!

Hello Everyone :-)

This is my first blog ever, but I'm really excited to get started. I haven't studied for nearly 7 years now, so please excuse my "rusty" english pronunciation. I haven't started yet for my teacher education (will do this autumn), but I will try my best for this task. Please have mercy with me and give me feedback on my way :-)

Have a nice day!