Life in the Information Age

We live in the information age from all these great advances we have achieved in the 21^st century. All the great advances are to do with communication and getting information through one person to another. It is said that the more you know the more powerful of an individual you become. Information and knowledge intertwine as to gather all this information you need to have good knowledge. This has been developed through the 21^st century as communication has changed.

It all started off with telegraphs, then it developed to radio and now it is wireless. These have advanced over the years so that you can communicate with people even if they are not close to you.

Computers

Computers were invented in 1969 and they were first used for adding and calculating, which is what we now call a calculator, and that is what it was ever used for in that time. Over the years it came apparent that you could use the digital code in far more sophisticated ways, being able to do billions of calculations in a matter of seconds. This was used so that information could be used from one place to another instantaneously and transforming methods and so because of this, we can call ourselves the ‘information age’. Computers are now all around us, even if we do not use the computer itself, some devices such as washing machines have computers in them and other household items we use every day. Now computers are used everywhere and are very accessible and have become an essential in people’s lives.

Calculators

The calculator when it was first invented was a very large object and it was known as a computer at the time. Due to developments in technology, they have minimised the size of the calculator and we now call these pocket calculators. Also the silicone chip was invented and it was a small quantity of silicone which you could connect a circuit through and it was found to be cheap to make and many of them could be made. These silicone chips are what we now call microchips and they are placed in many devices such as calculators and computers so that the size of these devices can be minimised.

Internet

The most recent change is the internet. The internet first started up so that universities could pass information to each other and it has now developed into people using it all over the world. At first it was easy to distinguish communication and internet, but it has changed so much that it is now all together because there are many social networking sites where people are able to communicate to each other using the internet. Similarly they had progressed internet onto phones; the iPhone was the first phone to connect to the internet easily to the extent where now all the phones we buy are smart phones.

Televisions

Televisions have developed massively over the years. When TV’s were first used they had a very limited number of channels of low quality and not many people owned them as they were expensive to buy. Now they are used like computers because you can now download things like you would on your computer but onto your TV. You are now able to watch films that are accessed through your TV and you can watch any programmes that you missed just at a click of a button. Sky has also introduced ‘Sky Go’ which is where you can watch their sky programmes wherever you are as long as you are connected to the internet. This all means that going to the cinema and other things relating to this have become digitised.