The proliferation of the smaller and less expensive personal computers and improvements in computing power by the early 1980s resulted in a sudden access to and ability to share and store information for more and more workers. Connectivity between computers within companies led to the ability of workers at different levels to access greater amounts of information. The proliferation of the internet in the 1990s resulted in a sudden leap in access to and ability share information in businesses, at home and around the globe.
Concurrently during the 1980s and 1990s in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Western Europe, there was a steady trend away from people holding Industrial Age manufacturing jobs. An increasing number of people held jobs as clerks in stores, office workers, teachers, nurses, etc. The industrial world was shifting into a service economy.
Eventually, Information and Communication Technology—computers, computerized machinery, fiber optics, communication satellites, Internet, and other ICT tools—became a significant part of the economy. Microcomputers were developed and many business and industries were greatly changed by ICT.
Nicholas Negroponte captured the essence of these changes in his 1995 book, Being Digital. His book discusses similarities and differences between products made of atoms and products made of bits. In essence, one can very cheaply and quickly make a copy of a product made of bits, and ship it across the country or around the world both quickly and at very low cost.
Thus, the term "Information Age" is often applied in relation to the use of cell phones, digital music, high definition television, digital cameras, the Internet, cable TV, and other items that have come into common use in the past 30 years.
Exercise 20. Answer the questions:
1.How can we otherwise call the Information Age?
2.What does the notion “the Information Age” mean?
3.Enumerate connections between the Information Age and other Ages or periods.
4.When did the Internet reach its critical mass?
5.What is the main goal of the Internet?
6.When did the Internet appear?
7.When was the World Wide Web invented?
8.What was the benefit of the computers in 1980s/ 1990s?
9.What significant part of the economy can you enumerate?
10. What does “Being Digital” by Nicholas Negroponte discuss?
11. Which other devices are applied in relation with the term "Information Age"?