Gr.

6 – INFORMATION AGE
LANOZA, KARYLL JOY G.
ARNALDO, JESSIE JAMES L.

What is INFORMATION?
INFORMATION
• Knowledge communicated or obtained concerning a specific fact or circumstance.
• Facts provided or learned about something or someone.

INFORMATION AGE
• A period starting in the last quarter of the 20th century information became
effortlessly accessible through publications and through the management of information by
computers and computer networks.
• DIGITAL AGE
• NEW MEDIA AGE

Information Age - is a true new age based upon the interconnection of computers via
telecommunications, with these information systems operating on both a real-time and
asneeded basis. Furthermore, the primary factors driving this new age forward are convenience
and user-friendliness which, in turn, will create user dependence.

Information Anxiety
• Human cost of information overload.
• In the words of Richard Saul Wurman (author of the book 'Information Anxiety'), it is
"produced by the ever-widening gap between what we understand and what we think we
should understand. It is the black hole between data and knowledge, and what happens when
information doesn't tell us what we want or need to know."

Truths of the Information Age

1. Information must compete
2. Newer is equated with truer
3. Selection is a viewpoint
4. The media sells what the culture buys
5. The early word gets the perm
6. You are what you eat and so is your brain
7. Anything in great demand will be counterfeited
8. Ideas are seen as controversial
9. Undead information walks ever on
10. Media presence creates the story
11. The medium selects the message
12. The whole truth is a pursuit

Computer
• An electronic device that stores and processes data (information)
• Runs on a program that contains the exact, step-by-step directions to solve a problem.
Types of Computer
1. Personal Computer
• Single-user instrument
• Known as microcomputers since they were a computer but built on a smaller scale

2. Desktop Computer
• PC that is not designed for portability
• Workstation: desktop computer that has a more powerful processor, additional
memory, and enhanced capabilities for performing special groups of tasks.

3. Laptops
• Portable computers that integrate the essentials of a desktop computer in a battery
operated package.

4. Personal Digital Assistant (PDA)

• Tightly integrated computers that usually have no keyboards but rely on a touch
screen for user input.
• Typically smaller than a paperback, lightweight, and battery-powered

5. Server
• Computer that has been improved to provide network services to other computers.
• Usually boast powerful processors, tons of memory, and large hard drives.

6. Mainframes
• Huge computer systems that can fill an entire room.
• Used by large firms that process millions of transactions every day

7. Wearable computers
• Materials that are usually integrated into cell phones, watches, and other small
objects or places.
• Perform common computer applications such as databases, emails, multimedia, and
schedules

The World Wide Web (Internet)

• Claude E. Shannon – “Father of Information Theory”
• Internet – worldwide system of interconnected networks that facilitate data
transmission among innumerable computers.

German goldsmith, Johannes Gutenberg, invented the printing press around 1440. This
invention was a result of finding a way to improve the manual, tedious, and slow printing
methods.

Information Age
The beginnings of mass communication can be traced back to the invention of the
printing press. The development of a fast and easy way of disseminating information in print
permanently reformed the structure of society.
 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.”

Alan Turing, an English mathematician, was hired in 1936 by the British top-secret
Government Code and Clipher School Bletchley Park to break the Enigma code. His code-
breaking methods became an industrial process having 12, 000 people working 24/7.

In the 1970’s, the generation who witnessed the dawn of the computer age was
described as the generation with “electronic brains.” The peoplw of this generation were the
first to be introduced to personal computers (PC’s).

In 1976, Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Inc., developed the computer that made
him famous: the Apple I. Wozniak designed the operating system, hardware, and circuit board
of the computer all by himself.

Steve Jobs, Wozniak’s friend, suggested to sell the Apple I as a fully assembled printed
circuit board. This jumpstarted their career as founders of Apple Inc.

From 1973 onward, social media platforms were introduced from variations ofmulti-
user chat rooms; instant-messaging applications (e.g. Yahoo messenger); bulletin-board forum
systems, game-based social networking sites (e.g. Facebook, Friendster, Myspace) etc.

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 many.
The impact of these innovations can be advantageous or disadvantageous depending on the
use of these technologies.