The Information Age

Information Age
• The information age, also known as digital age, is
regarded as a time in which information has become
a commodity that is quickly and widely disseminated
and easily available especially through the use of
computer technology.
The beginnings of information-communication technology can

be traced back to the invention of the printing press

around 1440, which brought by the wide

circulation of information and made production of books

possible.
As years progressed, calculations became involved in

communication due to the rapid developments in the

trade sector. Back then people who compiled actuarial tables

and did engineering calculations served as “computers”.

During World War II, the Allies including the following countries:

America, Canada, Britain, France, USSR, Australia

that opposed the Axis powers including the countries of

Germany, Japan, Italy, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria had

a serious shortage of human computers for military calculations.

When soldiers left for war, the shortage got worse, so

the US addressed the problem by creating the Harvard Mark I,

a general purpose electromechanical computer that was

50 feet long and capable of doing calculations in seconds

that usually took people hours.

At the same time, Britain needed mathematicians to crack

the German Navy’s enigma code. The enigma was an

enciphering machine that the German armed forces used to

securely send messages.

Alan Turing , an English mathematician, was hired in 1936 by

the British top-secret Government Code and Cipher School at

Bletchley Park to break the Enigma code. His code-breaking

methods became an industrial process having

12,000 people working 24/7.

To counteract this, the Nazis made the Enigma more complicated

having approximately 10114 possible permutations of every

encrypted message. Turing invented Bombe an electromechanical

machine that enabled the British to decipher encrypted messages

of the German Enigma machine.

Turing presented a theoretical machine called the Turing machine

that can solve any problem from simple instructions encoded on a

paper tape. This became the foundation of computer science and the

invention of a machine later called a computer, that can solve any

problem by performing task from a written program.

In the 1970s, the generation who witnessed the

dawn of the computer age was described as the

generation with “electronic brains”. The people of this generation

were the first to be introduced to personal computers.

Personal computers had become widespread by the end of the

1980s. Also available was the ability to connect these computers over

local or even national networks. Through a device called a modem,

individual users could link their computer to a wealth of information

using conventional phone lines . What lay beyond the individual

computer was a vast domain of information known as cyberspace.

In 1976, Steve Wozniak , co-founder of Apple Inc., developed

the computer that made him famous: the Apple I. He

designed the operating system, hardware, and circuit board of

the computer all by himself.

Steve Jobs, Wozniak’s friend, suggested to sell Apple I as a

fully assembled printed circuit board. This jumpstarted their

career as founders of Apple Inc.

The internet was also developed during the 1970s by the

Department of Defense. In the case of an attack, military advisers

suggested the advantage of being able to operate one computer

from another terminal. In the early days, the Internet was used

mainly by scientists to communicate with other scientists. The

Internet remained under government control until 1984.

Critics charged that the Internet created a digital divide that

increased the gap between the haves and have-nots. Those who

could not afford a computer or a monthly access fee were denied

these possibilities. Many decried the impersonal nature of

electronic communication compared to a telephone call or a

handwritten letter.
Regardless of its drawbacks, by the end

of the 1990s, the world was fast becoming wired.

Social media platforms were introduced from variations of multi-user

chat rooms and instant messaging applications like Yahoo messenger,

and Windows messenger ; bulletin board forum systems, game-based

social networking sites like Facebook , Myspace, & Friendster.

messaging, video and voice calling services like

viber and skype ; discovery and dating oriented

websites like Tagged , and Tinder.

Video and photo sharing services like Pinterest,

Instagram, Snapchat, and Vine; and question

and answer platform like Quora.

 The information age, which progressed from the invention of

the printing press to the development of numerous social media

platforms, has immensely influenced the lives of the people. The

impact of these innovations can be advantageous or disadvantageous

depending on the use of the technologies.