How ICT has changed the world

Mobile Phones have changed the world on a wide spread scale,  74% of the world now own a mobile phone, being so popular you would think there is nothing but advantages and couldn’t possibly have a negative effect on changing the world. As they are now a essential part of life and being wireless and able to fit in your pocket you now never have to worry about missing important phone calls, but as this is true they are expensive and can be easily lost or damaged, as opposed to telephones that stay in one place. As technology has grown most mobiles now have a built-in camera allowing you to make video calls with friends and family, as this may seem like a good point it has effected the way we socialise, as we’d rather video call then meet up face to face.

Game Consoles have changed the way the world entertains themselves and is becoming the most time consuming piece of equipment used by youth (8 years old – 17 year old) it allows you to escape to a virtual world where anything becomes possible, when 20 years ago board games where the only entertainment available which needed a lot more imagination to enjoy,  so in terms of entertainment the visual graphics and performance of today’s game consoles give the ultimate experience allowing to escape reality and be virtually anything or anyone, however it has single handily ended socialising as we know it, as rather than going to the valley to play football the youth now prefer to stay in their rooms and play football on the games console.

Credit/Debit Cards have changed the way the world the way handles and stores money, in the early 1900's the thought of walking around with every penny you owned seemed preposterous, now thanks to technology that is possible and you only have to carry a plastic card that is able to fit into your pocket, each credit/debit card has its own 4 digit security pin that only the owner knows of which decreases the chance of money being stolen, however wherever there is a positive there is a negative, paying with credit/debit cards it is said you don't actually feel like your spending money which then can lead to buying more and more until you are in debt, also if someone learns of your security pin you can easily become a victim of fraud and even identity theft.

Potential Threats

There are many potential threats that lie within technology that come in many different forms, one of the most common threats are mostly found within e-mails that are made to look a legitimate companies in hopes to gain access to your personal information such as bank details, this is known as Phishing. Recently there was an article on the BBC news website on which two men were remanded for masquerading as a major bank company urging students on government loans to provide their banking details through e-mails, in result gaining £1m in total. It is not only career criminals who are potential threats in the world of technology, if you own a mobile phone that is compatible with blue-tooth and it is enabled anyone around you is able to hack into your files and freely browse, edit and gain possession them, such mobile applications such as Super Bluetooth 3.0 & Blue Sniffer are free to download and make hacking as easy as pressing a button, this is however illegal and known as Phone Hacking.  Phone Hacking has recently shot to fame and has made many appearances in the media, as increasingly more celebrities are phone hacked surprisingly by newspapers and gossip columnist where they obtained text messages, phone calls, photos & videos.

Teleworking

Teleworking is the environmental agreement between the employer and employee where the employee can work from their home and at their own pace giving the employee a lot more freedom and flexibility, some may see this as a win/win arrangement however it can turn out to be quite a catch 22 situation, there are both advantages for the employer and employee but however, there are also disadvantages for both parties.

There are advantages for the employee such as no commute and no travel cost and in retrospect for the employers travel is no longer a problem that has in the past been an issue leaving them short staffed in result of travel complications that left staff unable to get to work, but in replace of old issues new issue arise such as the employee now working at home become a lot more distracted, unfocused and concentrating a lot less, a negative from the employers perspective is now having to put total trust in the employees hands leaving them with little authority and less observational opportunities to see the work quality being produced.