Does the Internet promise to increase or decrease social inequalities, and how might changes in the technology reduce or exacerbate this effect?
With the advent of the Internet and the opportunity of remote work, the premises for several changes within the employment landscape were created. Sadly enough, despite years of fighting for equality, gender and racial profiling in the workplace remains a major issue; however, with the opportunities that the Internet provides, some of the issues could be solved.
First, the Internet is a very powerful tool for increasing awareness. With the help of the social network, one can reach the people living in the remote corners of the world, which is crucial for fighting prejudice triggering inequalities. Second and most important, the Internet offers a plethora of free tools for the promotion of equality ideas, starting from CMS sources for creating sites with the corresponding context, up to blogging options, and uploading corresponding videos on YouTube.
However, it should be mentioned that, unless the problem of inequality is not acknowledged, using the Internet as the tool for designing new avenues to address racial and gender profiling is impossible. To solve the gender and race profiling issue, it is necessary to handle social prejudices, and the Internet should be viewed as a tool for enhancing awareness of the problem and not as a panacea from social inequalities.
How does technology shape our workplace?
In many respects, technology affects not only how production processes, as well as the process of information management, is carried out but also the structure of the workplace and the relationships between employees, along with the relations between an employee and the employer.
Among the most obvious changes, the ability to work remotely must be mentioned first. Even though the given option allows for more career opportunities and can help solve the issue of unemployment is doubtlessly a positive change, the lack of cooperation between the office managers and the remote employees is rapidly becoming the issue of top priority. The loss of touch with fellow employees and the managers makes the coordination of organizational behavior and enhancement of corporate values practically impossible, which can lead to a considerable drop in production values.
Is the regulatory apparatus of our government sufficient to protect our public interests?
It is necessary to keep in mind that the Internet is considered a free space created for communication, business, and entertainment purposes and cannot be regulated completely. Therefore, the protection from privacy invasion provided by the government, though doubtlessly worth appreciating, is not enough. To make the process of online surfing safer, one has to follow specific rules, as well as one’s common sense, and be responsible for the use of the Internet.
Of course, even the best security system cannot prevent instances of fraud. Therefore, being cautious and reasonable is the only way to avoid possible problems. Nevertheless, it must be admitted that the existing system of online users’ interests protection could use some improvements.
How can the system of governance be altered for the benefit of consumers?
Speaking of how the safety of consumers could be enhanced with the help of the government, the introduction of new methods of online trading regulations must be provided. To make the process of communication between the customer and the services provider, it will be required to define the specific dangers that a customer can face and use such policy enforcement as prevention, identification, or blocking of the potential incidents of customers’ rights infringement. Since easily downloadable malware remains to be the basic issue in the given field, it is required to enhance the web content filtering options.