The twenty-first century is also referred to as the era of information or rather the digitally based information age. Availability of information has enabled people to achieve numerous goals in many spheres of life. Undoubtedly, digitally based information society affects individuals as well as communities to a great extent. The new environment has influenced people’s health and the way people treat information. It is possible to note that the digital world has negative as well as positive outcomes.
In the first place, it is necessary to consider people’s health or rather the way the digital world affects humans. The case of La Quinta School can be regarded as a bright example of the negative effects digital environment causes (Segell 88). Several teachers developed cancer while working at the school.
The principal of the school initiated an investigation that showed that “[c]umulative exposure to transients in the school increased the likelihood a teacher would develop cancer by 64%” (Segell 86). Of course, the school is not the only place where people are exposed to negative influence of technology.
People are not safe even at home. Technology has made people’s life by far easier. Nonetheless, it has also become quite hazardous. Cell phones, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and other appliances affect people’s health as they act like magnets (Segell 88). Development of serious diseases is the price people pay for their comfort.
Apart from health hazards, the new environment is associated with a number of other effects. Thus, it has already changed the way people communicate. At present, there are no borders and people disregard distances. They can communicate 24 hours a day with people from all over the world. Thus, “sending and reading e-mail is by far the single most popular use of the Internet” (qtd. in Campbell et al. 51). More so, instant messaging has become a greater hit among young people.
Thus, instead of waiting some time and sharing ideas and emotions during meetings at certain places, people now can share their ideas with the rest of the world without even meeting their ‘interlocutors’. Personal communication is sometimes optional and many people are becoming absorbed by the digital world.
There is another way the digital world affects people. The abundance of information and its availability influences people’s lives and the way societies develop. The Internet enables people to share any information and spread it easily. Thus, ideas of violence and rebel can also be disseminated among people. Governments are addressing this problem.
Many states have started posing some restrictions trying to create some limits in the digital world (Campbell et al. 42). Thus, the USA, China and many other countries have imposed a number of restrictions and regulations to control information spread to certain extent.
On balance, it is possible to note that the transition from a print-oriented Industrial Age to a digitally-based Information Age is almost completed. This transition is associated with positive as well as negative outcomes. The digital world has affected the way people communicate and acquire information.
It has also a variety of impacts on people’s health. Notably, people did not understand those influences and did not know how to address certain issues. However, now people know how to diminish negative effects of the new digital environment and enjoy the comfort provided by the technology. Of course, there are still many questions to be answered but people are moving in the right direction.
Works Cited
Campbell, Richard, Christopher R. Martin, and Bettina Fabos. Media and Culture: An Introduction to Mass Communication. Boston, MA: IDP Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009. Print.
Segell, Michael. “Electroshocker.” Prevention Jan. 2010: 84-95. Print.