OLJ Task 2: The influence of technology on society
In a nutshell, technology has shifted the way that we live, work, and play and given its ongoing evolution, it will continue to do so into the future. As a member of Generation X, I have grown up alongside technology as it has advanced and been fortunate to learn it along the way. I have experienced both the analogue and digital worlds – for example, as a young child I listened to music played on vinyl records, as a teenager I owned a Walkman, followed by a Discman, and moved into digital technologies with an early generation iPod in the mid-2000s and got my first iPhone in 2008. Unlike previous generations who experienced the rapid changes in technology later in life or younger generations who have been born digital, I have seen the shift that technology has had and continues to have on society.
The influence of technology, specifically digital technologies, has led to an era when owning a personal mobile phone, and more likely a smartphone, is standard fare and almost a requirement to function in society these days as they are so much more than just a phone. Children these days, like my seven-year-old, are unsure how to make a phone call where they can’t see the person at the other end of the line due to the prominence video calling technologies which are standard nowadays. Mobile technologies, or ‘m-techs’ are, as Obinyan (2020, p. 374) points out, ‘recognized as the single most embraced technology in the world’. Given this, the impact for organisations is that you are not online, you are missing out on attracting, engaging with, and retaining users. Organisations nowadays need to exist online, with a website that is mobile friendly and beyond simply existing online, organisations need to have a social media presence. Moreover, organisations need to seek to understand their user preferences, as the choices are plentiful and there are clear favorites. According to the Digital 2021 Report (We Are Social, 2021), the top three social media apps used in 2002 were Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram but when the next report comes out this may no longer be the case. Evolving and changing iteratively is key to the success of organisations as remaining static when it comes to technology will simply leave them behind their counterparts. Other considerations for organisations include providing free Wi-Fi to their users, ensuring they have cashless payment options and creating staff training opportunities around digital literacy to allow them to feel confident in their tech skills so that they can engage and support users in their organisations.
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REFERENCES
Lastovich, Taylor. (n.d). Turned on black iPhone 7 displaying hello [Photograph]. Pexels. https://www.pexels.com/photo/turned-on-black-iphone-7-displaying-hello-1275929/
Obinyan, O. O. (2020). Application of mobile technologies in library service delivery. In A. Tella (Ed.), Handbook of research on digital devices for inclusivity and engagement in libraries (pp. 371-381). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-9034-7.ch019
We Are Social. (2021). Digital 2021. https://wearesocial.com/uk/blog/2021/01/digital-2021-uk/?mc_cid=ed509b472e&mc_eid=632bbf90f7