A summary
This article provides a wide-ranging discourse on the information society – its characteristics, challenges, differences with the other societies in history, the impact that these defining characteristics are having on the lives of members of this society vis-à-vis the lives of members of past societies et al. It opens by noting that there is a debate about whether such a thing as “an information society” really exists. The article seemingly grants that it does because it then launches into a long exploration of what sets an information society apart from other societies. It identifies four aspects that are considered when trying to determine whether a society can be considered an information society. They include technology, occupation, spartial and culture.
It explains that breakthroughs in information processing have led to application of information technology in all spheres of life so much so that we do everything using technology cook, communicate, treat ailments and even fight using technology. On occupation it reports that unlike in the other societies, occupations that exist because of information alone like teaching, medicine, clerks, lawyers et al dominate over and outnumber those whose existence is dependent on other things. Information has also taken center-stage as the key strategic resource on which the economy of the world is dependent; those that possess information possess immense economic resource. Lastly, modern culture is more heavily information laden than any of its predecessors’; there has been an extraordinary expansion of the information content of modern life. Even the clothes that people wear speak something about them in the information age.
The article, however, reports that there are competing schools of thought on just what impact this immense load of information has on the life of man. One school contends that “information creates a truly professionalized society” (1) while the other school posits that “it represents a tightening of control over the citizenry” (ibid). What is very clear from the article is that information is the cornerstone of a society.
