Positive and negative impact of ICT

Positive and Negative Impact of ICT

The effects of information communications technology, or ICT, as we call it today are massive. Society revolves around ICT, as we use it in almost every aspect of our lives, from health and wellness to something as trivial as a coffee maker. Companies manufacture virtually all their consumer products with the help of ICT. Some consumer products even came with an embedded tag to extend ICT functionality.

Given the widespread usage of ICT, let’s look at the positive and negative impact of ICT on society, technology, and the economy.

Positive and negative impact of ICT

Positive impact of ICT:

Information: The one thing that no one can deny is that the various advances in the field of ICT have made it possible for us to access information right away. In fact, this is the very reason why ICT has been commercially utilized across several industry verticals and what’s more, ICT makes it possible to collate and categorize information, run analysis on the same and even help companies determine their prospects, current trends and help chart their future course of action.

Knowledge: While it would be too much to argue that without ICT mankind would not have developed, the fact of the matter is that ICT made it possible for us to develop much faster and in the process, helped build a knowledge bank. As a result of ICT, we are able to conduct surgeries on live patients despite being separated by thousands of miles and have even utilized ICT to search for other sentient life among the stars.

Education: Thanks to ICT, it is now possible to mass produce essential school supplies at lower cost, host online classes for those who cannot afford to go to schools and much more. With ICT, our education system had undergone an overhaul, resulting in better educational formats, and the students are better off, as a result of the same.

Negative impact of ICT:

Unemployment: As a result of several companies opting to automate their manufacturing process, several workers have been laid off. While ICT did not directly cause these workers to lose their jobs, it was and still remains as one of the causative factors behind the rising unemployment.

Addiction: Some ICT related products have proved to be more harmful than others – such as gaming, mobile phones etc. As a result, young vulnerable teens often get addicted to online gaming, often playing the same for several hours. This often leads to their health being impacted, especially their vision.

Obesity: Obesity is a global killer and one of the main reasons for underage children to become obese at a young age happens to be the fact that they rather spend their free time with online games than with any physical activity. As a result, they become more withdrawn, and this lack of physical activity on their part leads them to put on the pounds. It is only a matter of time before they become diabetic as well.

Social interactions: With more online games being released each month, with high-end graphics, it has become harder for many to resist online gaming. As a result, most of those, into online gaming, spend less time with their loved ones and rather spend it all with an online persona. With little social interaction, they soon develop to become awkward, social misfits who find it hard to integrate with the rest 0f society.

These are some of the positive and negative effects of ICT. No one is claiming that ICT is bad for you but that you need to take care in how to utilize the same. If you have kids, then it is vital that you monitor their behavior so that they do not get addicted to any of the online games.  You can always consult a child counselor who can advise you on how to ensure that your kid does not become the next casualty of ICT. It is important that local governments regulate our ICT usage to the point that we no longer have to be worried about its negative effects.

Alan Behrens

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