Transformations in Communication Technology

The transformations that have taken place in Communication Technology have paved way to three Information Communications Revolutions, and the outcomes of these transformations have expansively impacted individuals as well as societies. 

 

Let me unfold chronological evidence to the aforementioned premise. 

During the olden days in Rome, people who wanted to know the news paid professional speakers a coin for the privilege of listening to the speaker announcing the day’s events. This was synonymous with the case of the First Information Communications Revolution wherein writing was invented, and Pictographs were developed into phonetic writing in 3500 BC and were used as symbols for sounds. Despite the milestone, information still belonged to very few people. Only literate people were either monks or members of the privileged classes, and scholars still had to painstakingly copy the information they wanted to keep, or pay a scribe to copy for them. Indeed, knowledge- and the power it brings- belonged to very few people during this era.

On the other hand, societies grew more literate in the Second Information Communications Revolution. While scribes could produce one copy at a time, Johannes Gutenberg’s invention, the movable type printer, could produce ten times more than any scribe could have produced in an hour. This meant that information, which belonged to the privileged few, would one day be accessible to everyone, and that technology will be the vehicle to improved communication channels and devices.

Finally, the Third Information Communications Revolution brought about the development of digital computers beginning around 1951. Computers have become storehouses and transmitters of vast amounts of information that previously relied on the written word. Storability, portability, and accessibility of information are prominent features in this information communications revolution. 

If we look at the accounts and annotations presented above, the transformations that have taken place in Communication Technology are not only revolutionary in its technical aspect, but also life-changing in the manner the transformations have impinged on the vitality of relationships, on the diversity of lifestyle, on the operational functions of institutions and businesses, and on the value of human advancement. 

 

Communication Technology has become a powerful agent in the building of nations and lives; however, it has always been a de facto that changes or revolutions will always have twin children- the good and the wicked. Indeed, it is never cliché to infuse the quotation “with great power comes great responsibility” in the discourse on the use of communication technology in today’s trends and times.