Information technology or better known as IT is not only the term for computers and computer networks, but also technology such as television and telephones. In the past few decades there has been a rapid increase in computing and communications, and as the world grows, so does the demand for technological progress and the use of information technology. Archeologist are digging up tools and weapons of ancient peoples to understand who they were and how they lived, but in today’s society, computers, iPhones, and 3D televisions are the tools of evolution. The following sections will focus on the effect information technology has on society, divided into business, education and private lives.
The business world in general has come a long way from the first slide rulers in 1632 to the first fax 1895 and then ultimately the programmable computer in 1936. Managers in a board meeting can now use a pen that not only records voices but also as notes are taken they can then easily be transferred to a computer, instantly converted into text and be send out via e-mail to other parties without even leaving the boardroom. All meeting attendants do not necessary have to be in the conference room but using video conferencing, people participating in meeting all over the world can attend the same meeting. In business, it is not only in the office space that information technology plays a significant role but also in the technical field outside the office walls. Take for instants the process in locating oil fields on land and at sea. Random drilling on land began with a prospector that went looking for a spot of seeping oil from the ground. Disregarding where it came from, or the environment he erected his primitive drill or started digging with physical labor. Later on in years in1901, the first scientific device called the torsion balance was used in mapping lake bottoms and rock formations. The goal being to find the right conditions in source rock, reservoir rock and entrapment of oil in what is call an oil pocket. Today’s geologists not only use sensitive gravity meters and magnetometers but also examine surface and terrain with the additional help of satellite images. Sensitive electronic noses called sniffers are engaged to detect a flammable and poisonous gas called hydrocarbons, this method is also used underground in mine shafts. Lastly surveyors will come in with a seismograph to locate the oil deposits. A seismograph creates shock waves that pass through hidden rock layers and interpreting the waves that are reflected back to the surface. Finally, if the geologists are satisfied that they have found a prospective oil pocket, they mark the location by using GPS coordinates and more modern drilling equipment are brought into set up drilling stations that are safer and accurate not only for the environment but also laborers. Then again if a person is sitting at his office on land, how will he know what is going on at sea? Technology has introduced the 3D Acoustic Modeling system. It simulates the behavior of sound in a virtual ocean environment in the confines of an office on land. As Etter (2013) writes, “Over the passed decade, rapid changes in the world simulation have opened new advances in electronic communication have greatly facilitated the transfer of modeling and simulation technology via the internet that now provides unprecedented access to databases around the world” (Preface p. xvii). Thus leading us to one of the major factors that information technology has in business and that is eliminating distance.
Not even a decade ago, if a person was talking about a blackboard, one would imagine a big, square flat board, that was used to write on with a piece of chalk. Then again if one ask a school child today, the answer will be a program that you use to retrieve your homework from on the computer. Slates were used from as early as the eleventh century, and most adults can