STS
SW08 NOVEMBER 21, 2022
INSTRUCTIONS:
- use PDF format before uploading your answer in the assignment tab
- hand-written answer will be accepted, take a picture then convert to PDF
(Q1) INFORMATION AGE
The Information age is what we know to be the technological way of developing what we
have now in the society which is online and social media. Technologies are upgrading fast that
what things they had before are becoming one in a gadget and can multi-task even better than
those things that they used before in old age. An explanation or more of a reason for this is the
continuous development of information throughout the age. It is also known as the Digital Age
or New Media age which are based on the interconnection via telecommunications. Furthermore,
this age drive people into its convenience and user-friendliness which, in turn, will create user
dependence.
Informare, a Latin word for Information that shapes or to give form of becoming a
character or anything that can share to someone. It needs to be communicated for its purpose that
focuses on the basis of all information which is destined to be passed to someone or something
and to create a connection that will lead to the development of information. It has a structure
which consists of three aspects: Agent, Sign, and Thing. The role of this is to inform the agent
about something by the use of the sign. Therefore, Information is definitely the lead to what we
have in the reality of the society.
In history, we can say that the distribution of information started since the invention of
the printing press. With this invention, it allows the mass distribution of information. The
invention was a work of a German craftsman, Johannes Gutenberg, who became the first
inventor of printing press in the 15 th century, after the Pre-Gutenberg Era. Before, information
was difficult to create in papers and distribute to others because there were no tools to be used
which became a reason why the event called to be an era before the printing “Gutenberg”
invention era. Transmissions before were mostly by word-of-mouth and the elite groups had
access to information. Thus, the Gutenberg era was introduced where this technology benefits
information.
Society turned into the Gutenberg Era. The invention of printing press mass produced
information such as books that are very useful in sharing stories that reflect reality. As the era
continues, Information Mediation Institutions arise such that it widely scopes the large quantity
of printing materials like news, bank, music industries which uses information for their
businesses. These institutions produce what we call traditional media which consists of what we
still have up to the new generation like newspapers, billboards, and television. With the
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invention of the modern computer and the development of the internet in the 1980s, the post-
Gutenberg era began. The start of the information age.
Distributing lots of information became easier in the beginning of the Information Age.
Post-Gutenberg Era now utilizes online media to access social networks that would benefit more
in transmission. This era also marks the rise of social media which provides more advantages as
compared to traditional media. This era can be described as the emergence of the internet and the
world wide web. This paved the way to the possible uploading and downloading of all forms of
media instruments such as video, audio, and images. With the rise of social networks and
crowdsourcing, traditional media became less necessary
Progress was brought to us by the information age. Gives us light to the benefits of
technologies in communication information as it became an impact to the society and how the
individual live in. It led us to the new advances of science and technology such as evolutions and
growth by research, physics and other branches of sciences that help technology for the
betterment of our daily lives. However, too much of it can cause many negative effects not just
for the person using it, but also the community who shares the same technology. Individuals
become more dependent on using information that they are not aware of its consequences. We
can now use social media to interact with one another and communicate with anyone, which
became easier for us to build a connection. However, we cannot deny that most of our time is
now on using social media which can lead to addiction. Thus, the information age in society
brought convenience and our daily tasks although it has great negative impact to the users.
(Q2) ISSUES AND CONCERNS
Too much dependence on information will cause negative effects that turns out to be
Information Anxiety. The information age or digital age brings a lot of information overload for
the reason that there is so much information that is circulating around the market and society.
This causes confusion to an individual to the point of not knowing what the truth is and what is
fake information that makes them prone to misinformation. According to Richard Wurman, the
growing gap between what we comprehend and what we believe we should grasp is what gave
rise to this problem. It is what happens when information does not provide individuals with the
answers they need or want, and it is the gap between data and knowledge. Due to the new ones
covering them, we were unaware of the truth. They tend to worry about whether the information
they obtained is trustworthy since they are overwhelmed with the number of things going on
right now. Information is an important tool for survival, that will make us advanced, however,
too much of it will make us down and overloaded. When a student has information anxiety, one
of the effects is mental exhaustion since there is simply too much information to process. As a
result, productivity declines, failure-related frustration rises, and stress levels rise.
