Chapter 3

Technology and Society in the Information Age

 Technology

 Technology is the process by which humans modify

nature to meet their needs and wants.
 Technology refers to the processes and products by
which humans have coped with and changed their
environment through out history.
 It refers not only to the sophisticated machine of the
21st C.
 but also to the rudimentary stone tools of the early
man)
 Classes of Technology
With the current level of development the uses of the term have increased to the
point where it now encompasses a number of “classes” of technology.
1. Technology as Objects:
 Tools, machines, instruments, weapons, appliances - the physical devices of
technical performance
2. Technology as Knowledge:
 The know-how behind technological innovation
3. Technology as Activities:
 What people do - their skills, methods, procedures, routines
4.Technology as a Process:
 Begins with a need and ends with a solution
5.Technology as a Socio-technical System:
 The manufacture and use of objects involving people and other objects in
combination
 Ergonomics
Ergonomics is the study of physical relationship between people and their work environment.
 It became common in the 1990s as a result of the wide application of computers in

offices and due to the negative impact caused by the use of this technology.
 Ergonomics has sub-fields:

 Hardware Ergonomics

- User-equipment related problems including work station design

 Software Ergonomics

- Problems in communication with the computer

 People ware Ergonomics

- Psychological impacts of computer use

 The physical and psychological problems caused by the computer use can be solved by

designing an ergonomically correct equipment, furniture, facilities, and man-

machine interfaces.
Ergonomics cont….

 The goal is improving:

 Health condition
 Efficiency
 Comfort
 Safety
 Therefore, ergonomics is concerned with fitting the job environment
to the worker
The economic implications of Ergonomics are:
 Medical cost reduction
 Less absenteeism
 Higher productivity
 .
The physiology of the human computer interaction
Use of a computer is a physical activity involving:
 hands,
 eyes,
 ears, and
 body.
Computer use causes physical stress or damage due to:
i. Static effort
 Expended by keeping the body in an upright position and in
maintaining the position of the shoulders and the neck.
(prolonged posture/prolonged state of muscle concentration)
 The muscles are not permitted to relax and it may imply a
constrained posture.
 .

i. Dynamic effort
 Expended by the muscles of the hand, fingers and wrist.

This results in a decrease in the productivity of people.

The major physiological problems that occur as a result of the human computer interaction are:
 Repetitive Stress Injuries (RSIs)
 Back and Neck Pains
 Computer Vision Syndrome (CVS)

a. Repetitive Stress Injuries (RSIs)

 Caused by a repeated movement/ an over use of human joints

 When muscles are forced through fast and repetitive motions.

E.g. typing on computer

 Most of the time such injuries occur on:

 wrist

 hand

 arm
 Keyboard operators are in one of the highest risk categories in relation to this problem.
  RSIs disorders include
 Muscle strain and tendonitis
o Caused by hitting the key too hard
o It is painful but not crippling
o Solution:
 Rest
 Anti-inflammatory medication
 Change in typing technique
 Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS)
o Caused by pressure on the nerve in the wrist
o Produces damage and pain to nerves and tendons in the hand
o It is disabling and requires surgery
o Solution:
 keeping keying in speed at a reasonable level and
 taking regular breaks.
 b. Back and Neck Pains
 Caused by:
 Improper chairs
 Improper position of keyboards and display screen
 The postural fatigue that is caused by seating for a prolonged time
C. Computer Vision Syndrome (CVS)
 Consists eyestrain:
 Loss of visual sharpness
 Difficulty in focusing
 Headache
 Sore eyes
 Double vision
 Redness and watering of the eyes
 These problems are mainly reported by VDU operators.
 Focusing on VDU causes the eye muscles to be continuously under tension.
 Computer Vision Syndrome (CVS) Cont…
 The causes of the problem:
 Using computers for extended periods
 Being too close to the screen
 Glare on computer screen
 Poor resolution of displayed characters (reading small character
size on the screen)
 Poor contrast between text and background on the monitor
 Noticeable screen flickers
 Poor lighting system (too bright or too dull)
 There is no evidence that permanent damage to the eye is caused by
using a VDU.
 Design parameters for an Ergonomic Workstation

i. Proper Design of furniture: like chair with adjustable

 back support
 seat height
 padded arm rest
ii. Keyboard
 Thin and detachable
 Positioned low enough to keep wrist straight, shoulders
relaxed and elbows angled 90 and 120 degrees
iii. Mouse or Trackball
 With easy reach
 At the same height as keyboard
iv. Vision
 Adequate amount of light (use ordinary light rather than
fluorescent light)
 Avoid glare (keep the screen away from windows)
 Use control knobs on the monitor
 Improving character fonts
 Proper contrast between character and background (dark
character on light background is recommended)

 Improving display resolutions (color combination that are easier

for eyes)
 Frequent vision breaks (looking away from the screen occasionally)
 The psychology of the human computer interaction

The stresses experienced by computer users are not only physical but also
psychological.
It is mainly cased by:
Computer anxiety
 Defined as the psychological state of individuals who have negative reactions
towards using computers.
 CA is known as computerphobia, technophobia, cyberphobia, technostress or
computer resistance.

 The individual who experiences CA is known as a technophobe, computer phobe

and considered to be computer illiterate.

 Stress, embarrassment, frustration, irritation, panic and the fear of exposing

one's ignorance are all part of the feelings associated with computer anxiety.
 There are five specific types of Internet addiction:-
i. Cyber sexual Addiction – Individuals who are either engaged in viewing, downloading,
and trading online pornography.

2.Cyber-Relational Addiction – Individuals who suffer from Chat Room Addiction these
relationships are established at the expense of real life relationships with family and friends.

This will lead to marital discord and family instability.

ii. Net Gaming –includes obsessive online gambling, gaming, shopping, or stock trading
behaviors.
iii. Information Overload – The wealth of data available on the World Wide Web has
created a new type of compulsive behavior regarding excessive web surfing and
database searches.
Individuals will spend greater amounts of time searching data from web
v. Computer Addiction – In the 80s, computer games such as Solitaire and
Minesweeper were programmed into computers and

Researchers found that obsessive computer game playing became problematic in

organizational settings as employees spent most days playing rather than working.

These games are not interactive nor played online.

Frightens of the integration of a man and a machine.

 We don't want to be machines ourselves.

 We don’t want to be like hackers who use 'too much' computers and
become selfish machines without human emotions.

 Those man-machines can't interact in 'the normal life’.

 They can’t separate good and bad, they can't communicate, they can't
love.
 Response time
Since interaction with the computer is often interpreted by the user as
"conversation",
 a slow computer can have a psychological effect similar to waiting
for a particularly slow speaker to finish a sentence.
User productivity increases when "conversational" response times
are decreased.

 Noise from printers or from a computer power units

 Social Interactions among ICT Users

 Social interactions are linked by the common interests of its members.

 It includes:
 Sharing of thoughts, ideas, information, knowledge and
experience through discussion and debate.
 Conducting commerce
 Sharing emotional support
 Making plans
 Finding friends
 Political discussions
 Educational discussions
 Playing games, etc.
 How are computers used for interaction?
 The interaction is made through online network such as Web:
 E-mail
 Forums (list of messages are available on the internet and
people interact by replying the messages)
 News groups
 Chat rooms (chat room' is simply a web page which can
display typed messages in real time), etc
 Nature of computer mediated interaction:
 Absence of physical, face-to-face or human to human contact
o There is no need to meet in real life
o As a result, the cost of transmission, dissemination and reproduction
of information is highly reduced.
 Brings together people geographically and sociologically unrelated
 Due to this:
o The language may vary
o The moral and ethical nature of behavior may also vary
 Communication through an electronic medium flattens social rank and
governance – remove individuals from the center of power: Loss of power,
rank and title.
 o If everyone has equal access to computer network,
we pay more attention to what people say rather than to how important
they are,
- This creates a field of competition based on ideas, not position/status.

-The ability to transmit information across great distance and

at an increasingly faster speed allows for a larger set of connections that can
be maintained for longer periods.
 Some of the disadvantages include:
i. Problems due to loss of face-to-face communication
 Removed the visual information:
 Eye movement
 Expressive movement of the mouth
 Removed perception of sound: it is impossible to understand a feeling of the person:
 Warm and enthusiastic
 Cold and angry
ii. Problems related to the absence of vision
 Loss of emotional solidarity
 Less confidence in judging someone’s characteristics
 Limited ability to make positive and emotionally based evaluation about the person.
 Lack of understanding about feelings that contribute to the strength of group ties.

iii. Individual isolation

Computer mediated interaction isolate individuals from normal social interaction.

It alienates the individual from the social group.

Current developments are solving some of the problems stated above.
Example:
The development of Multimedia Interfaces added emotional
communication to computer networks:
 It Lets you hear the person
 It Lets you see him
 It Allow you to present yourself to others at a distance.
 But still the quality of our interaction will not be improved by multimedia
Interface.
 This is because it looses the quality of face-to-face contact.
o Our ability to imagine ourselves in the presence of another self is limited
o The technology cannot supply us with the cultural value that we should
communicate with individuals.
Chapter Four
Social Networks
Definition of Social Networks

 Social network describes the number of social linkages, frequency of contact,

quality of relationships.

 Social network services is web-based services which allow individuals to

Construct a public or semipublic profile within a bounded system, Communicate
with other users; and View the pages and details provided by other users within the
system

 Social network: - is a social structure made of nodes which are generally

individuals or organizations.
 It indicates the ways in which they are connected through various social
familiarities ranging from casual acquaintance to close familial bonds.
 Social networks remain stable throughout life.
 Social network

Some of the examples

 Facebook  Instagram

 Linked in  telegram

 YouTube  Skype

 Twitter  Zoom and etc.

 Pinterest
Advantages Of Social Networking

1. Staying Connected

The main purpose of social media is to be able to stay connected to friends

and families in today’s fast paced and ever changing worlds.

 It helps in establishing connection with people, friends and relatives.

 It helps in sharing one’s view, share pictures and lots of other stuffs.

 Allows employees to discuss ideas, post news, ask questions and share
links.
Advantage of social Networks
2. Finding People With Common Interests

 Social networking is also a great way to meet entirely new people.

 Social networking can provide opportunities for new relationships as well

as strengthening existing relationships.

3. Invaluable Promotional Tool

 Companies, artists, and musicians can reach an impossibly large and diverse
amount of people using social network sites.

 This allows to promote and market themselves and their products in a way
that has never been seen before.
Disadvantage of social network

1. Disseminates False and unreliable information

 Anything can spread to millions of people

within hours or days on social media.

 This also, unfortunately, includes things

that are false or made up.

 This information can cause panic and

severe misinformation in society.

Disadvantage of social network

2. Causing Major Relationship Problems

Online social interactions with social networking have not only been

starting new relationships, but ending many others.

 It is very simple to communicate and share pictures or plans

with a person on social media and keep it completely under

wraps.

 This new temptation has been driving wedges into people’s

real life, offline relationships, often time ending them for good.

 Social networking puts trust to the limit.

3. Cyber Bullying Is A Growing Problem

 Having access to people’s lives at all times is not always a good thing.

 A new trend of cyber bullying is wreaking havoc all across the world.

 This is especially true with young kids.

 They are publicly harassing one another, and posting mean or slanderous
things which are broadcast-ed to the entire cyberworld.
Disadvantage of social network

4. Used to profile and discriminate In the job World

 Just about everyone has a social media account the shows

o what they look like,

o the type of life that they live, and

o how old they are.

 Employers are using this to their advantages is some very unsettling ways.

o Jobs that are looking for a certain criteria of person,

o but cannot legally express these criteria, are using social media to prescreen
their applicants
5. Addiction

 One of the biggest problems with the social media challenge is that people
are becoming more and more addicted to using it.

 It is the number one time waster at work, in school, and at home.

 All of this has caused people to have literal withdraws from their social
networks.
Difference between social media and social network

Literatures states the difference as :

Social Media : is the media (content) that you upload -- whether that’s a blog, video,
slideshow, podcast, newsletter or an eBook.

 Consider social media as a one-to-many communication method.

 Although people can respond and comment, you own the content and have to
produce (write/record/create) the media yourself.

 Social Networks :

 Once you decide what media you are going to use, begin with social networking sites
like Facebook and Twitter to engage with your audience.

 Having a Facebook business page for you and your brand is essential because, as you
know, people on Facebook read books and will tell their friends and colleagues about
your book.
 Reading Assignment

 Read and describe the following titles

 Social Networks and the Network Society

 Network Economy
 Network Society and Social Capital
 Virtual Social Networks

 write a short note within a minimum of 3 pages

 Submission date : Monday :- morning on class schedule.