So can you survive in 2013 without technology?
Truth is, everywhere uses technology. I am using technology and digital means to right now to write this blog. The same will be used to mark and grade this blog, and then the same again for me to see the result of this assessment. Without technology or digital devices, this unit wouldn't even exist. Most of us have our own mobile phones, according to these statistics more people have mobile phones than they do access to working toilets, which is very surreal. To get through the stages of typical life in modern Britain, you must know how to use a phone and the basics of a computer at least. You must use the phone to talk to organisations such as call centres when you need help with something such as a bank account or a transaction, and you learn how to use the basics of computer in school in ICT, where you learn how to use programmes such as Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel and others. In further education, depending on which courses you choose, you may have to learn to use much more advanced software such as Photoshop or Final cut. These will be essential tools if you were to choose a career in Media or film for example.
This chart, courtesy of the BBC shows which countries contrast to each other in digital activity and connection.
This shows that some of the countries considered to be third world such as Ethiopia are almost completely out of touch with technology. This reflects in the reports of complete poverty in these areas. In places like Ethiopia and other African countries, people struggle to find food and clean water to drink so it's no wonder that their internet connection is the least of their worries. However with past examples of how the Internet has boosted economy, it's easy to see how if made possible the Internet could massively advantage these third world countries, such as it has for places like South America.
In such remote, poverty stricken countries, the idea of a fully functioning Internet connection is quite extreme for obvious reasons.
This video explains a business idea to bring laptops to children in third world countries and improve the Geographical digital divide. It costs $100 which may seem like a good price for a fully functioning laptop with all the cool added bits on such as being dust proof which would be ideal for a place like Ethiopia. This short documentary shows the laptops in action and what good they can do for such a community. Although a good and thoughtful idea of how to spread the digital world to disadvantaged people, there are many other factors that contribute to the possible and most likely failure of the system, such as affordability as well as James (2010) stating that ''the project would divert resources from other important projects that may be of higher priority and have more impact on development.''
This in mind, it is a valuable point but surely with all the resources the internet has to offer, with the right teaching and the right environment, the standard and rate of education could grow, meaning that the economy of third world countries could possibly grow so vast that there will no longer be a third world category, meaning the entire global economy would be better off as there wouldn't be as much cause for other countries to contribute funds to others.
Of course, to say that giving everyone in the world access to the Internet would solve everything would be ridiculous. On the contrary it could have completely undesirables circumstances, such as the recent Internet cut in Egypt at the protests, where the Egyptian government cut off the Internet for the whole country when it was discovered it was being used to arrange and encourage protests against them. If the government has the power to cut off the internet, what's to stop anyone being able to do it? What if we were completely reliant on the Internet and it got hacked or destroyed? We would be completely and utterly lost.
As well as being a global matter, it could also be a problem closer to home. Our dear Grandma's and Grandpa's try their best to be cool and down with the kids, however when it comes to Blackberry's and Facebook, they are quite simply hopeless. Surprisingly, statistics show that 43% of British senior citizens aged 55-74 are frequent users of the Internet. However for the majority that don't know how, simple every day tasks can become a trek. Having personal experience with this working as a cashier in a Supermarket, it's not even laughable any more when an older person puts their back card in the wrong way up, it's quite concerning as to how vulnerable they are.
References:
James (2010) http://impactofinformationsystemsonsociety.wordpress.com/2011/01/09/week-2-technology-and-third-world-development/
News feed http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/03/25/more-people-have-cell-phones-than-toilets-u-n-study-shows/
BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8568681.stm
The Blaze http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2011/01/28/provider-egypts-internet-suffers-severe-outages/
ISpreview http://www.ispreview.co.uk/story/2011/03/22/senior-uk-citizens-revealed-as-some-of-europes-most-internet-savvy-surfers.html
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