The Information Age

Introduction

Modern Society that is the society we have now. We now use more technology and
information in our day-today life than before. Technology became high-tech and advanced.
Highly modernized, automated, data-driven In line with this, Information can be transferred and
shared quickly. The evolution of the information age, the advantages and disadvantages of
computers, how to check the reliability of sources and some examples of this will be tackled in
this lesson.

Information is knowledge communicated or obtained concerning a specific fact or

circumstances (Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary). Wherein the idea that we
gained from other people. It also refers to the idea that was shared through communication. The
main reason why we talk or communicate to other people is to gain information. Without
Information we are nothing. For example, we cannot operate equipment and machines without
information or the manual. Another example during calamities we will not survive without
having any information about that. We will not know the precautionary measure without sharing
information from one another that's why Information is important to us. Information is natural in
human's nature.

Information age is defined as a period starting in the last quarter of the 20th century
when information became effortlessly accessible through publications and through the
management of computers and computer networks. It means that the information age started in
1901 wherein the access of information was easy and quickly since different technology was
invented which makes our life easier than before. It is also called the Digital Age or New Media
Age because computers were associated with it.

According to James R. Messenger, proposed the Theory of Information Age In 1982, that
information age is a true new age based upon the Interconnection of computers via
telecommunications, the information was easily disseminated even on the actual time it was
needed or either in a specific time. It was founded as very useful and convenient but then it also
makes a human dependent on it.

History of Information Age

YEAR EVENT
3000 BC Sumerian writing system used pictographs to represent words
2900 BC Beginnings of Egyptian hieroglyphic writing
1300 BC Tortoise shell and oracle bone writing were used
500 BC Papyrus roll was used
220 BC Chinese small seal writing was developed
100 AD Book (parchment codex)
105 AD Woodblock printing and paper was invented by the Chinese
1455 Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press using movable metal type
1755 Samuel Johnson's dictionary standardized English spelling
1802  The Library of Congress was established
 Invention of the carbon arc lamp
1824 Research on persistence of vision published
1830s  First viable design for a digital computer
 Augusta Lady Byron writes the world’s first computer program
1837 Invention of the telegraph in Great Britain and the United States
1861 Motion pictures were projected onto a screen
1876 Dewey Decimal system was introduced
1877 Eadweard Muybridge demonstrated high-speed photography
1899 First magnetic recording were released
1902 Motion picture special effects were used
1906 Lee DeForest invented the electronic amplifying tube (triode)
1923 Television camera tube was invented by Zvorkyn
1926 First practical sound movie
1939 Regularly scheduled television broadcasting began in the US
 1940s Beginnings of information science as a discipline
1945 Vannevar Bush foresaw the invention of hypertext
1946 ENAIC computer was developed
1948 Birth of field-of-information theory proposed by Claude E. Shannon
1957 Planar transistor was developed by Jean Hoerni
1958 First integrated circuit
1960s Library of Congress developed LC MARC (machine readable code)
1969 UNIX operating system was developed,
which could handle multitasking
1971 Intel introduced the first microprocessor chip
1972 Optical laserdisc was developed by Philips and MCA
1974 MCA and Philips agreed on a standard videodisc encoding format
1975 Altair Microcomputer Kit was released: first personal computer for the public
1977 RadioShack introduced the first complete personal computer
1984 Apple Macintosh computer was introduced
Mid 1980s Artificial intelligence was separated from information science
1987 HyperCard was developed by Bill Atkinson recipe box metaphor
1991 Four hundred fifty complete works of literature on one CD-ROM was released
January 1997 RSA (encryption and network security software) Internet security code for a
48-bit number

As we humans evolved, information also does. Information disseminate so fast that we

can no longer keep it to ourselves because of that we share and managed them in different ways.
Due to the abundance of the information, it was difficult to collect and manage them starting the
year 1960s to 1970s. Richard Wurman called the phenomenon as "Information Anxiety" during
the 1980s. Year 1990s, it became an important tool in the business world because it provides the
development of each business. Though, many authors contrasting Ideas about the evolution of
the information age, information is an essential tool for our everyday living, without information
we will not be able to gain new knowledge that will helps us to improve our way of living.
  Robert Harris detailed some facts about Information age on his article "Truths of the
Information Age" which are the following:

1. Information must compete. It means that although we have so much information

there is always the one who will be recognized by the people and will stand out.

2. Newer is equated with truer. If the information was released recently, people mostly
think that is true or valid because it is up to date which we forget that there is also some
information which is true although they are released in the past.

3. Selection is a viewpoint. We have to look for different sources for us to come in a best
conclusion. It also helps us to avoid being biased in some information we will be getting.

4. The media sells what the culture buys. It means that we were able to know and adapt
different cultures because of the media. For example, the K-pop, because of the media we were
able to know how to pronounce their language and now most of the youths speak some of
Korean words.

5. The early word gets the perm. Once the issue first presented in one channel, the
concepts, terms and attitudes will be the definition of the issue that will end up us comparing the
Information when it was presented in the other media channel.

6. You are what you eat and so is your brain. Majority of the people believe the
information is so quickly to get without knowing the background of it. So, we should not drive
into conclusions without getting all the ideas and information for us not to be blased and have
valid Information that will be stored in our minds.

7. Anything in great demand will be counterfeited. Information that gets trendy is

mostly the information that is being fabricated or edited which leads us to get “fake news”. We
can only prove that the information is legit or true if the statement or information is delivered by
a reliable person or he/she is part of the issue that is being on trend. For example, Ms. Lea
Salongga’s viral video about the fans who enter to her dressing to have picture with her without
her permission. It was one of the previous issue on showbiz that's why there are different
versions of stories about it and we will only know the real story if the statement will be coming
from the Fans and Ms. Lea that involved in the issue.
 8. Ideas are seen as controversial. We all have different perspective about an idea or
information and there are times that not all people around us have the same idea we might have
think of or some of them might not agree to our ideas that's why Ideas are controversy. An
example of this is the battle between a debate wherein two opposing teams (the anti and pro or
the positive and the negative) are fighting for their stands.

9. Undead information walks ever on. Information still continues even though it
happened years or eras ago. It doesn't die especially if it is alarming or a special event that has
affect in our history. For example, the Issues during Marcos' period, even though it was years
ago it is still being discussed in schools even today.

10. Media presence creates the story. Media influences everyone a lot especially
children that is why they acted the way they should not which makes it like new story was
created.

11. The medium selects the message. The first issue or Information we watched in
televisions is mostly the news that talks about calamities, disaster which is very important for the
people to know because it concerns them.

12. The whole truth is a pursuit. We all know that the news or information we watched
or read in televisions or social media are already filtered. Some information was deducted or they
were not providing the detailed story about the issue. Which sometimes lead to the unrevealed
truth?

Computer

Computers are among the greatest contribution in the information age to our society. It
provides us an easy access to different Information we needed. Computer is an electronic device
that stores and processes data (information). It runs on a program that contains the exact, step-
by-step directions to solve a problem (UShistory.org, 2017).

Types of Computer
 The term "computer" associated to every device that has a microprocessor in it. It
receives an input from the users, then it will be processed and the results will be presented on a
screen.

1. Personal Computer (PC). It can be changed or customized in settings. You can store
or personalize your computer just by changing its setting.

2. Desktop Computer. A small version of computer. Same with the personal computer it
is located in a particular area whether in the corner of the house or office or beside some
furniture.

3. Laptops. It is more portable than personal and desktop computers. And since it is
portable you can bring it anywhere you go. It is an essential thing to those office people
especially to teachers and accountants.

4. Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs). It is defined as full screen object and touch
screen at the same time. It may be light weight and more portable than laptops. An example of it
is cellphones and tablets.

5. Server. It refers to a computer that usually provides network services to other

computers. This type of computer usually boasts with powerful processor, tons of memory and
large hard drives to support the other computers.

6. Mainframes. These are huge computers that can fill a room. It usually used by a large
firm that processes a million of transactions every day. It was replaced as enterprise server. We
can also define this as supercomputer which are single computers system that working a single
system. Examples of these are the computers in NASA or PAGASA.

7. Wearable Computers. They can Involve material that are usually integrated into
cellphones, watches and other small objects or places that also have a common computer
application such as databases, email, multimedia and schedules. Examples are Smartphone and
smart watches.
THE WORLD WIDE WEB

Internet originated from Claude E. Shannon, an American Mathematician who was

considered as the "Father of Information Theory". He worked at Bell Laboratories and at the age
of 32, he published a paper proposing that information can be quantitatively encoded as a
sequence of ones and zeros that is why computer programming composed of ones and zeros.

According to Rouse (2014), Internet is a worldwide system of interconnected networks

that facilitate data transmission among Innumerable computers. It means that internet is a system
that connects everybody around the world that helps in sharing data with the use of computers. It
was also developed during 1970s by the Department of defense for them to easily contact their
fellow military in case of attacks. In early days, these were mostly used by scientist to connect or
communicate to other scientist.

The early problem encounter by the internet users was the speed. Companies like Intel
developed a faster microprocessor so that personal computers would not have a problem in terms
of the signal.

Sergey Brin is a computer scientist and Internet engineer. He was known as the 13th
richest person in the world. He is also the president of Alphabet Incorporated which was the
parent company of Google. Being mathematician and computer science enthusiast was in their
bloodline so after he finished college, he enrolled in Stanford University to attain his master's
degree. But there he met Larry Page whom he built a web page. It became popular to the
Stanford that's why they decided to suspend their studies and focus on the web page that they
made which is the Google. After the creation of Google, new forms of communication are
introduced. The process of sending and receiving of information became more convenient and
easy unlike before where you need to wait for a long period of time to receive a message.
America Online and CampuServe also started to create chat rooms for an individual who wanted
to make friends online. 'Surfing the net' became the past time activity of most people.

As the internet became popular, many companies operating a business that are built on
digitized information have become powerful and valuable in a short period of time. Some people
are Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft where he developed it year 1975. Another person is
Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple where he founded it year 1984 releasing their first computer
called Apple Macintosh. And lastly Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of facebook which he founded
it year 2004 and until now it is popular because it helps a lot in terms of communicating to other
people particularly abroad or in other country.

We all know that Internet helps us a lot nowadays, easy access on Information and latest
news, it also gave entertainment and the best contribution is the easy and quick communication
to others. Of course, having the advantages it also has disadvantages. One of this is it increased
the gap between the higher class and the lower class. Lower class cannot afford to have internet;
as a result, they will still use the old way they know. Internet allowed the broadcast of
pornography. And nowadays, social media have been use as a tool in committing a crime such as
cyber bullying that until now this case is still increasing. We should not take advantage of the
essential of the information age instead we should use it as a tool to develop our society and
ourselves as well.

APPLICATIONS OF COMPUTERS IN SCIENCE AND RESEARCH

One of the best applications of computers in science and research is in the field of
bioinformatics. Bioinformatics is the application of information technology to store, organize,
and analyze vast amount of biological data which is available in the form of sequences and
structures of proteins- the building blocks of organisms and nucleic acids- the Information carrier
We humans cannot store so much information that includes millions of structures, formulas,
solutions and the content and context as well. Computers helps in storing a large amount of
different Information, It also helps in organizing the Information.

HOW TO CHECK THE RELIABILTY OF WEB SOURCES

Internet has a vast of information that we can get but not all of it was credible and reliable
enough to use or get. Lee College Library (n.d.) provides a list of guidelines that will help us to
identify a reliable source that we can use in getting the Information we needed.
1. Who is the author of the article/site?

To check the reliability of a web source first of all you must check who the author
of it is. You must check his/her background especially if he/she has expertise in field of
topic he/she had chosen.

2. Who published the site?

You will know that a web source is reliable by also checking the domain name of
the website. The domain name should provide information about itself. Paying attention
to the suffixes on the domain name can also depict what kind of entity hosts the website.
Some examples of it are .edu for educational, .com for commercial, .mil for military, .gov
for government and .org for non-profit.

3. What is the main purpose of the site?

Why did the author write it and why did the publisher post it? Determine the
purpose of the author whether he/she wants to persuade, to inform, to ask, to suggest or
what to know his/her intention. Maybe somehow other authors are just having fun in
giving false idea just to make their selves popular. If his/her article is convincing and
provide supporting evidences, then we can consider it as a reliable source.

4. Who is the Intended audience?

Identifying the intended audience will lead us to a reliable source. Is the site for
general audience, is it for professionals, is it for students, is it for adults, and is it for a
people from a particular group? This will help the audience to understand the Information
provided and avoid being misled. For example, the site is for person in the field of
medicine, if the person will be going to read the text is from the field of education he/she
will not be able to understand because there are some terms that is intended only for
them.

5. What is the quality of information provided on the website?

The website should have provided dates when was the first published for us to
identify if it is updated. The author should also provide his/her sources because providing
 sources makes the site more reliable. We should also consider the link sites of the
website, are they reputable? And lastly is the site being cited by others, it serves as
evidence that the information is credible and reliable.

After verifying the guidelines, we should always read the content because it is the best
way for us to identify the reliability of the sources because not all the sites have these complete
guidelines and the very Important we should be wise in getting the information we needed.

EXAMPLES OF USEFUL AND RELIABLE WEB SOURCES

1. AFA e-Newsletter (Alzheimer's Foundation of America newsletter)

2. American Memory

3. Bartleby.com Great books Online

4. Chronicling America

5. Cyber Bullying

6. Drug Information websites: National Library of Medicine's Medline Plus, Drugs.com,

and PDRhealth

7. Global Gateway: World Culture & Resources

8. Google Books

9. Googlescholar.com

10. History sites with primary sources: AMDOCS, Avalon Project, Internet Modern
History Sourcebook, Teacher Oz's Kingdom of History

11. Illinois Digital Archives

12. Internet Archive

 13. Internet Archive for CARLI digitized resources

14. Internet Public Library

15. Ipl2

16. Librarians' Internet Index

17. Making of America

18. Maps

19. NationMaster

20. Nursing Sites: AHQR, National Guidelines Clearinghouse, PubMed

21. Project Guternburg

22. Shmoop

23. StateMaster

24. Virtual Reference

SUMMARY

Nowadays, information could be shared or transferred quickly. We are now on modern

society/age that lot of false information but we can avoid it when we see the credibility of the
information and the authors. Various aspects of our society are also being influenced by the
Information Age especially communication, economics, industry, health, and the environment.
The rapid upgrade of information poses both positive and negative impacts to our society.
Therefore, we need to carefully check our motives before disseminating information and we also
need to verify information before believing and using and sharing of the information.
REFERENCES:

BOOK

Serafica, et al. (2018). Science, Technology, and Society (1st ed.). Quezon City, Manila: Rex
Book Store WEBSITES Arc lamp. (n.d.).

Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arc_lamp

Bellis, M. (2019). Biography of Bill Gates, Co-Founder of Microsoft. Retrieved -1991861

Billington, J. (n.d.). from https://www.thoughtco.com/bill-gates-biography-and-history Library

of Congress.

Cellania, M. (2015). Ada Lovelace: The First Computer Programmer. Retrieved from

Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/topic/Library-of-Congress

http://mentalfloss.com/article/53131/ada-lovelace-first- computer-programmer