Digital media has made our lives easier in many ways; it has reduced the cost of living too. We can do online business from home, shop from any store in any part of the world online, stay connected with not only family and friends but also others who need your help and support and stay connected to the world of information. Networking has become so much easier now and individuals and companies are on a distance of a click from us. I am of the belief that usage of digital media makes people smarter and opens up an amazing world of learning to its users. Internet Search engines have made life of students and researchers easy and increased the general knowledge, answers from a search engine are not limited to a single book that you may find in a library anymore, you are exposed to different views from different authors and the criticizers, this gives you a wider range of information from different angles to understand the matter in depth. Today’s kids are smarter than kids of earlier generation, thanks to technology. Online games teach kids different ways of finding critical paths in the games preparing their minds for project management in future and strengthening their thinking and logical abilities to come up with different ways of solving puzzles.
The digital media tools are here to educate us but how to use them wisely without overusing them is an individual and corporate social responsibility. Producers of electronic gadgets should not only focus on the introduction of smart devices but also create awareness about disadvantages of overusing them. Awareness about harms should be as clear as the benefits of the product and not be limited to the presence in manuals only but through advertisements, blogs and bulletins. Meanwhile families and education providers should monitor and educate students on how to use the devices wisely.
The argument that logical reasoning and critical thinking ability of people is affected and that individuals use copy and paste functions to write blogs and researches can also be handled through technology, education providers shall enforce use of softwares such as turn it in to identify self work against copied one, expose students to different ways of learning, directing them to articles and references to solve cases.
The argument about impact of Web 2.0 Social technologies for management is looking at the negative side of the technology only which can be controlled but oversees the most beneficial impact of it which is web conferencing and telecommunication. As discussed in earlier chapters, the web 2.0 cut travel cost of many business, enabled collaboration and made decision making easier without having to wait for approvals through actual office visits. While the web 2.0 can be used for interacting with friends during work hours, it is widely used by Procter and Gamble staff for collaboration. According to P&G, 80,000 employees use instant messaging in different branches as source of collaboration cutting the cost of communication. In today’s technological world, it is not difficult for organizations to monitor the usage of Instant messages and block social sites during work hours to optimize maximum use of work hours for the benefit of organization yet keeping employees focused.
Sense of responsibility comes from inside a person and a responsible and dedicated person will not easily get distracted by availability of tab browsing, Facebook or other social sites but will only consider them options. Internet has turned the world