"ICT: Enemies or Friends"

 

    Have you ever imagine living in a world where technology didn’t exist? Do you ever asked yourself the question, "What would I do without technology?" Well, in this generation with the incredible breakthroughs in technology, the world is becoming more and more evolved. The term 'ICT or Information Communication Technology' is given to all advancements of technology in the world. Modern progress in technology, learning, and information has led to immense possibilities. All these have made it possible for people to gather information and use it for their needs. However, everything in life there is always a positive and negative side of every phenomenon and that includes technology. Let us all dig deeper of all the positive and negative caused by ICT.

    The effects of Information Communications Technology, or ICT, as we call it today are massive. Society revolves around ICT, as we use it in almost every aspect of our lives.  We use technology to control the world in which we live. Technology is people using knowledge, tools, and systems to make their lives easier and better. People use technology to improve their ability to do work. Through technology, people communicate better. Technology allows them to make more and better products. Our buildings are better through the use of technology. Yes, technology is everywhere and can make life better. Now that we are facing in the middle of a pandemic, ICT is very contemporary. The greatest positive effect of ICT on individuals is the huge increase in access to information and services that has accompanied the growth of the Internet. Yet, the downside of it is that it can be the loss of a person’s job. This has both economic consequences, loss of income, social consequences, and loss of status. These may occur because of the manual operations being replaced by automation. When it comes to education, technology is crucial especially on the situation that we are facing right now. With the new distance learning system, teachers and students can communicate with each other without leaving their homes. We can also say that distance learning is very convenient since we are not spending money on buying school supplies. But of course, there is still a disadvantage on it.  There can be large costs involved and can be affected to the less fortunate students. This is often referred to as being a factor in the digital divide. Furthermore, most students back then use to go to tutors and also consult books to help them do their assignments. It does not happen anymore because they just do ‘copy’ and ‘paste’ from the internet and does not necessarily learn what they are copying and pasting. This could cause the downgrading of learning rate for most students. ICT on the society had a massive changed, considering that most people nowadays are using phones to communicate. Compared back then, writing a letter is a way of communicating but with the help of ICT, communication had become paperless. This means information can be stored and retrieved through the digital medium instead of paper. And also, it took a long time for any news or messages to be send. Now with the internet, news or messages are sent via email, social medias and other platforms. Although, these are very convenient and accessible, ICT still has a negative effect on the society. Nowadays, people tend to choose online communication rather than having real time conversations these can cause reduction of social interaction.

    In conclusion, the more technology develops, the more we change. This change has a great impact to what we usually do as digital devices are having an increasing effect with the way we communicate, the way we look up for something, the way we are entertained, the way we are taught and learn and many others. ICT has the power to transform us and we also have the power to transform ICT. With the enhancements of these brilliant technologies, one must use and develop these the positive way while trying to avoid the inappropriate.