Aprilyn Joy L.

Bualoy
GE-4
Chapter 6
The Information Age (Gutenburg to Social Media)
• Life is accompanied by endless transmission of information that takes place within and
outside the human body.
• According to Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary, information is
“knowledge communicated or obtained concerning a specific fact or circumstance.”
• Hence, information is a very important tool for survival.
The Information Age
• - defined as a “period starting in the last quarter of the 20 th century when
information became effortlessly accessible through the management of information
by computers and computers network”(Vocabulary.com, n.d).
• - also called the Digital Age and the New Media Age because it was associated
with the development of the computers
According to James R. Messenger who proposed the Theory of Information Age in 1982,
“the primary factors driving this new age forward are convenience and user-friendliness which,
in turn, will create user dependence”
COMPUTER
TYPES OF COMPUTER
• Personal Computer • Server
• Desktop computer • Mainframes
• Laptops • Wearable Computers
• Personal Digital • The World Wide Web
Assistants (Internet)

The pre-Gutenberg world

In the world before the introduction of the printing press it was not possible to distribute
precise replicable information to a large number of people. Information could be captured, in the
laborious and time consuming process of hand-produced books, scrolls or tablets, but access to
this information was restricted to a small elite group.
JOHANNES GUTENBURG(1398-1468)
 - German blacksmith, goldsmith, printer, and publisher who invented the world‘s first
printing press
-his printing press revolutionalized the creation of books and helped make them
affordable, ushering in a new era of affordable books and literature
If mankind has enough of a future to still have a history, it is possible that the last 500
years will be come to be known as the Gutenberg era on account of there having been one
defining characteristic, first established by Johannes Gutenberg, responsible for shaping the
nature of society and its institutions throughout this whole period.
Gutenberg principle- is the fact that the mass distribution of information became possible, but
was expensive and therefore institutionalized.
The Gutenberg revolution
The Gutenberg principle can be expressed as the fact that mass distribution of
information is possible, but expensive. The effect of the Gutenberg principle was the rise of
institutionalized and mediated channels to create the efficiencies and scale necessary to manage
the interaction between people with information and needs on the one hand, and the people who
wanted that information or could satisfy those needs.
The post-Gutenberg world
The emergence of the internet and the World Wide Web in the 1990s was initially hailed
by many as ushering in new democratic age, driven by much greater access to information. In
reality, while the internet had a dramatic impact, the revolutionary shifts predicted did not occur.
This is because, in its earliest days, the World Wide Web still conformed to the Gutenberg
principle. The reality of much greater access to information was not matched by a greater ability
to publish it.
This changed with two developments. First, the spread of broadband internet access
made it possible to easily both upload and download all forms of media: video, images and audio
as well as just text and transactions. Second, tools emerged which made it simple for people to
publish or spread information. Blogging was the first example, followed by social networking
and distribution and sharing sites like YouTube and Flickr.
Transparency and Trust
In the Gutenberg world, trust was institutionalized. Organizations worked to establish
reputations such that people would trust anything and everything they did without feeling the
need to interrogate it for themselves.
Social media is undermining these assumptions. Now that the tools of mass publication
are available to any it is possible to expose inconsistencies between claim and reality. Every
customer is potentially an investigative journalist, equipped with sound and video recording
equipment (i.e. a mobile phone).
Example: Wikipedia and its battle with Encyclopedia Britannica
SUMMARY
Nowadays, information could be shared or transferred quickly. People are becoming
more interested in sharing information about themselves. Various aspects of our society are also
being influenced by the Information Age especially communication, economics, industry, health,
and the environment. The upgrade of information poses both positive and negative impacts on
our society. Therefore, we need to carefully check our motives before disseminating information
and we also need to verify information before believing them and using and sharing them. We
should share information that could help improve our lives and others.

From the Guternburg where the printing press serves as the social media where they can get
information into Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. that we use now in terms of communicating
and getting information.

References:
http://richardstacy.com/2008/11/20/gutenberg-and-the-social-media-revolution-an-investigation-of-
the-world-where-it-costs-nothing-to-distribute-information/

Science, Technology, and Society Learning Module