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THE INFORMATION AGE

Duration: 3 hours

The information age voted for many inventions and innovations. According to
James Robert Messenger, the Father of the information age, “the Information Age is
a truly new age based upon the interrelationship of computers via telecommunications.
With these information structure operating on both a eal time and as needed basis.
Furthermore, the primary factors driving this new age forward are convenience and
user-friendliness, which, in turn, will create user dependence.”

Many different inventions came about, and the Internet is one of the
breakthroughs. The Internet allowed people to gather and share information in just
one click. It also improves education quality, provides effective communication, and
offers a progressive approach in our daily lifestyle. On the other hand, it changes how
we communicate verbally and how we write messages such as we don't care about
the proper grammar and spelling of words anymore. Creating and sharing information
through social media made different standpoints in our way of life, either positively or
depressingly.

In this module, we will expound the effects of social media on our lives. How
social media formed and various laws related to its use.

The students will be able to:

1. Link learned concepts to the progress of the information age and its impact
on society.
2. Illustrate how social media and the information age have impacted our lives.

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The Birth of Social Media: Before and Today

The roots of social media stretch far more in-depth than you would possibly
imagine. However, it looks like a replacement trend; sites like Facebook are the natural
outcome of the many centuries of social media advancement.
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Social Media Before 1900

The earliest methods of communicating and connecting across great distances

used written correspondence delivered by hand from individual to another. In other
words, letters. The primeval form of postal service dates back to 550 B.C., and this
primitive delivery system would become more extensive and streamlined in future
centuries.

In 1972 the telegraph was invented. It allowed messages to be forwarded over

a long distance far quicker than a horse and rider could carry them. Although telegraph
information were short, they were a revolutionary method to convey news and
knowledge.

Although no longer well-known outside of drive-through banking, the pneumatic

post, developed in 1865, was created differently for letters to be delivered instantly
between recipients. A pneumatic post utilizes below ground pressurized air tubes to
carry capsules from one area to another. (Smallbiztrends.com/2013/05/the-complete-
history-of-social-media-infographic.html)

In the last decade of 1800s, two important discoveries happened, the

telephone in 1890 and the following year, 1891, radio was invented.

Both technologies are far more sophisticated than their antecedents.

Telephone lines and radio signals empowered people to speak across great distances
instantaneously, which humankind had never experienced earlier.

Social Media in the 20th Century

Technology began to change very swiftly in the 20th Century. After creating the
primary supercomputers within the 1940s, scientists and engineers started to develop
ways to make networks between those computers, which later cause the Internet to
arise.

During the 1960s, the earliest forms of the Internet, such as CompuServe, were
developed. And during this time, primitive sorts of the email was also developed.
Networking technology had improved in 70s, and UseNet grant users to speak through
a virtual newsletter in 1979's.

Home computers were becoming more ordinary, and social media was
becoming more sophisticated during the 1980s. Internet relay chats, or IRCs, were
first utilized in 1988 and continued to be famous well into the 1990s.

The first distinguishable social media site, Six Degrees, was developed in 1997.
It permitted users to upload a profile and make friends with other users. In 1999, the
primary blogging sites became popular, creating a social media sensation that’s still
popular today.

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Social Media Now

After the creation of blogging, social media began to break out in popularity.
Sites like Myspace and LinkedIn acquire prominence in the early 2000s, and sites like
Photobucket and Flickr facilitated online photo sharing. YouTube soared in 2005,
creating an entirely new way for people to connect and share across great ranges.

Twitter and Facebook both became available to users throughout the planet in
2006. These sites remain the foremost popular social networks on the web. Other sites
like Pinterest, Spotify, Foursquare, and Tumblr began going up to fill specific social
networking niches.

Today, there’s an incredible sort of social networking site, and numerous are often
linked to permit cross-posting. These create an environment where users can reach the
maximum number of individuals without sacrificing personal communication intimacy. We
can only speculate about what the forthcoming of social networking may look within the
next decade or maybe 100 years from now, but it seems clear that it will be present in
some scheme for as long as humans are breathing.

The Impact of Social Media to Society

Social media is a mighty revolution that has changed our lives. It has changed
how we socialize, conduct our businesses, engage in political affairs, shape
professions, and set job recruitments.

According to 2019 Social Media Statistics, hese are the significant ways that
these platforms have impacted our society:

1. SOCIALIZATION

On how people socialize has been dramatically revolutionized with platforms like
Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. It has made it effortless to connect to our relatives,
friends and family members on actual time basis. With social media, humans can share
pictures and videos and communicate with their close ones. It has strengthened
relationships, bringing families together in a way that was not possible
in the past.

Families, friends, relatives, and businesses can share skills and improve on different
abilities. Additionally, human get to make and meet new acquaintances.

2. BUSINESS

Businesses have significantly impacted social media — from marketing to

interact with customers on a timely basis. A place that has entwined the use of social
has a definite edge over its opponents. The online platforms are a less extravagant
way for businesses to advertise their offerings on a real-time basis and attract more

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customers. It has made it uncomplicated for companies to reach a broader customer
base and improve customer loyalty through different programs. Easy access to
customers gives businesses the advatage to retain existing customers as well as to
attract more.
It leads to excellent market share and more significant profit margins, and some
good bucks for businesses.

Through interaction and feedback by businesses to their customers, they can

understand the market quickly, adopt new strategies, and conform to the dynamic
customer's tastes and demands.

3. POLITICS

Social media has impacted politics in some ways. Nowadays, most people get
their news; in some cases, this is often before the media houses do. It's the medium
that provides the most uncomplicated access to political and other information. These
online platforms also grant people to air out their political grievances to their political
leaders and demand actions. Forming political rallies, administering campaigns, and
even political unrest felt in this medium.

4. JOB HIRING

Social media has impacted job recruitments significantly. The bulk of

companies make their hiring decisions supported one's social portfolio. Scouts also
use online networks to post job vacancies through which they get their ideal
candidates. It's also made it easy for job seekers to urge access to job posts. This is
often evident on platforms like LinkedIn, where job aspirant can create their profile
consisting their skills and see what job opportunities recruiters are posting.

5. EDUCATION

Multitude skills and professions are built and learned through social media.
There's a considerable increase in online learning, also referred to as the "new normal
education," where one can quickly learn a skill and build a robust profession around
it. The presence of social media has led to a rise within the number of individuals
undertaking distance learning, also as academic offerings.

THE NEGATIVE IMPACTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA

There are, however, downside impacts caused by social media. Regardless of

it being a platform through which we socialize, run our business, and understand
politics, here are some negative results to require into consideration:

a. Through sharing personal information, one's privacy is in danger of

impersonations, theft, and stalking — among other vices. Nowadays,
companies use social media to measure job seekers. Posting anything abusive
or embarrassing could cause you to lose those job opportunities, because 'the
internet never forgets.'

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b. Online social platforms are irresistible, and this has drastically reduced
productivity at the workplace. These impacts negatively on companies as they
incur losses.
c. Some people — especially the introverts — rely on the virtual world as against
the vital world.
d. Since information travels faster online, a bit of false information or “fake news”
could quickly reach an enormous number of individuals and cause great panic
among the recipients.
e. Cyberbullying is another worrying impact on social media. The effect of
cyberbullying have seen victims falling into depression and, in additional radical
cases, has cost them their lives.

THE CYBERCRIME LAW

Cybercrime, also called computer crime, uses a computer as an instrument

to further illegal ends, like committing fraud, trafficking in kiddie porn and property,
stealing identities, or violating privacy. Cybercrime, primarily through the web, has
grown in importance because the computer has become central to commerce,
entertainment, and government.
Most cybercrime is an assault on information about individuals, corporations,
or governments. Although the attacks don't happen on a human body, they happen on
the private or corporate virtual body. In other words, within the digital age, our virtual
identities are essential feature of everyday life: we are an array of numbers and
identifiers in multiple computer databases possessed by governments and
corporations. Cybercrime focuses on the centrality of networked computers in our lives
and the fragility of such seemingly solid facts as individual identity.

In 1996 the Council of Europe and side government representatives from the
US, Canada, and Japan, drafted an initial treaty covering computer crime. Around the
globe, civil libertarian groups immediately protested provisions within the treaty
requiring Internet service providers (ISPs) to store data on their customers'
transactions and show this information over demand. Work on the treaty proceeded
nevertheless, and on November 23, 2001, the Council of Europe Convention on
Cybercrime was signed by 30 states. The convention came into effect in 2004.
Additional protocols, covering terrorist activities and racist and xenophobic
cybercrimes, were proposed in 2002 and came into effect in 2006. additionally, various
national laws, like the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001, have expanded law enforcement’s
power to watch and protect computer networks.
The Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 was officially documented as Republic
Act No. 10175, a law within the Philippines, and approved on September 12, 2012. It
aims to deal with legal issues concerning online interactions and, therefore, the
Philippines' Internet. Among the cybercrime offenses or punishable acts includes the
following:

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A. Offenses against the integrity, confidentiality and availability of
computer data and systems:
1. Illegal access – the access to the entire or any a part of a computing
system with no permission.
2. Illegal Interception – the interception created by technical ways without
right of any non-public transmission of computer data to, from, or within a
computing system including electromagnetic emissions from a computing
system carrying such computer data.
3. Data Interference - the intentional or irresponsible alteration, damaging,
deletion or deterioration of computer network, electronic document, or
electronic data message, with no permission, including virus introduction or
transmittal.
4. System Interference — the intentional modification or irresponsible
hindering or interference with the operating of a computer or computer
network by damaging, inputting, transmitting, deleting, altering
deteriorating, or suppressing computer program or data, electronic data
message or electronic document, without the right or authority, including the
introduction or transmission of viruses.
5. Misuse of Devices - the use, production, sale, procurement, importation,
distribution, or otherwise making available, without right, of:

(a) A device, including a computer program, designed primarily to commit

any of the offenses under this Act; or
(b) A computer password, access code, or similar data by which the whole
or any part of a computer system is capable of being accessed with the
intent that it be used for the purpose of committing any of the offenses under
this Act.
6. Cyber-squatting – the obtaining of a domain name over the Internet in bad
faith to profit, mislead, destroy the reputation, and deprive others of
registering the same, if such a domain name is:
(a) Similar, identical, or confusingly similar to an existing trademark
registered with the appropriate government agency at the time of the domain
name registration:
(b) Identical or in any way similar with the name of a person other than the
registrant, in case of a personal name; and
(c) Acquired without right or with intellectual property interests in
it. B. Computer-related Offenses:
1. Computer-related Forgery — the input, alteration, or deletion of any
computer data without right leading to inauthentic data with the intent that it's
considered or acted upon for legal aim as if it were authentic, despite
everything whether or not the information is directly readable and intelligible;
or, the Act of knowingly using computer data and that the

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product of computer-related forgery as defined herein, for the aim of
perpetuating a fraudulent or deceitful design or plan.
2. Computer-related fraud — the unapproved input, alteration, or deletion of
computer data or program or interference within the functioning of a computing
system, causing injury thereby with fraudulent intent: Provided that if no
damage has yet been caused, the punishment imposable shall be one degree
under.
3. Computer-related Identity Theft – the willful acquisition, use, misuse,
transfer, possession, alteration or deletion of identifying information belonging
to somebody, whether natural or juridical, without right: Provided, That if no
injury has yet been caused, the punishment imposable shall be one degree
under.
C. Content-related Offenses:
1. Cybersex — the intentional engagement, maintenance, control, or operation,
directly or indirectly, of any lascivious exhibition of sexual organs or sexual
deed, with the help of a computer system, for consideration or favor.
2. Child Pornography — the prohibited or unlawful acts defined and punishable
bythe Anti-Child Pornography Act of 2009 or Republic Act No. 9775,
committed through a computer system: Provided, That the penalty to be
imposed shall be (1) one degree beyond that provided for in Republic Act No.
9775.
3. Unsolicited Commercial Communications — the transmission of economic
transmission with the utilization of a computing system which seeks to
advertise, sell or offer purchasable products and services are prohibited
unless: (a) there's prior confirmative consent from the recipient; or (b) the first
intent of the communication is for service and administrative announcements
from the sender to its existing users, subscribers or customers; or (c) the
following conditions are present:
(1) The commercial transmission contains an easy, valid, and reliable
way for the recipient to reject. Receipt of further
commercial electronic messages (opt-out) from an equivalent
source;
(2) The commercial transmission doesn't purposely disguise the
origin of the electronic news; and
(3)The commercial communication doesn't intentionally include
misleading information in any part of the message to induce the
recipients to read the statement.
4. Libel — the unlawful or prohibited acts of libel as defined in Article 355 of the
Revised Penal Code, as amended, committed through a computer system, or
any other similar means which can devise within the future.
D. Other Offenses

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1. Aiding or Abetting in the Commission of Cybercrime – any person who
willfully abets or aids in the commission of any offenses enumerated in this
Act shall be held liable.
2. Attempt in the Commission of Cybercrime — any person who consciously
attempts to commit any of the crimes listed in this Act shall be held
accountable.
Individuals found guilty of cybersex face a jail term of prison mayor (6 years
and one day to 12 years) or a fine of at least P200,000 but not exceeding P1 million.

Child pornography via computer carries a penalty one degree above that provided
by RA 9775 or the Anti-Child Pornography Act of 2009. Under RA 9775, those producing,
disseminating, or distributing child pornography will be fined from P50 000 to P5 million
and slapped a maximum jail term of reclusion perpetua or 20 to
40 years.

Persons found guilty of unsolicited communication face arresto mayor (imprisonment

for one month and one day to 6 months) or a fine of at least P50 000 but not more
than P250, 000 or both.

On March 02, 2020, the first guilty verdict in a cyber-libel case returned against
a local politician, Archie Yongco, of Aurora, Zamboanga del Sur. He was found guilty
of falsely accusing another local politician of murder-for-hire via a Facebook post,
which he deleted minutes later. The court was unconvinced by his denial that he
posted the message, and he was sentenced to eight years in jail and ordered to pay
damages of ₱610,000 (US$12,175).

Figure 1. Opportunities created by Information Age

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REFERENCES

https://interestingengineering.com/a-chronological-history-of-social-media

http://www.dikseo.teimes.gr/spoudastirio/E-
NOTES/I/Information_Age_Viewpoints.pdf

https://smallbiztrends.com/2013/05/the-complete-history-of-social-media-
infographic.html#:~:text=The%20first%20recognizable%20social%20media,s
ensatio n%20that's%20still%20popular%20today.

https://www.mediaupdate.co.za/social/147946/the-impact-of-social-
media-on-our-society

https://sysomos.com/2016/12/22/impact-social-media-networks-
society/#:~:text=Social%20media%20can%20be%20very,way%20to%20e
ngage%20 with%20customers.

https://emmanueltrangiajr.wordpress.com/2019/01/13/what-are-the-
punishable-acts-of-ra-10175/

https://technology.inquirer.net/34360/in-the-know-the-cybercrime-
law#:~:text=10175%2C%20or%20the%20Cybercrime%20Prevention%20
Act%20of
%202012%2C%20was%20signed,electronic%20communication%20in%
20the%20c ountry.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/cybercrime

https://slideplayer.com/slide/7975463/

https://mawdbabalu.wordpress.com/author/mawdbabalu/