Infomation Era

As world progressed into Informational Age from Industrial Age since 1980s, many things have experienced various changes. Tangible things became untouchable including cash into credit card, and information started to be considered as “resource.” Among such a wide range of changes, the speed of information propagation can be said one of the most distinctive differentiations. The biggest examples of this are computer and cellular phone.
Although, ANIAC, the world’s first computer, was built in 1947 by US army, not until by 1908s was computer available to the public. When PC, the term popularized by Apple, first appeared in markets, it made possible for users to communicate each other. With the advent of WWW(World Wide Web) by 1989, the speed information spread was considerably got faster. It connects all users around the whole world and help flow of relevant information. For example, if we wish to see the tomorrow’s weather of Tokyo, when internet was not available, people should wait for TV or radio news, or need to buy a newspaper. However, we don’t need to wait, and we don’t need to spend 500 yen for buying newspaper. All we need to do is log on to Yahoo Japan and click Tenki. As this activity does not involve so much time, transmission of information get so faster, and it also apply to money making. We can access to the prices of stocks on NYSE, and also be able to buy and sell them anytime we want. It is undeniable internet have made our pace of life faster.
Along with internet, cellular phone, commonly called cell phone, is one of the representative symbols of Information Age. Although the first commercial mobile phone was produced in 1979 by NTT in Japan, by 1990s cell phones were too big to put in the jacket pocket. However, as it become smaller and comfortable, many people started to enjoy cell phone’s functions. According to Wikipedia, about 80% of world’s total population is using cell phone. It helps the ‘informationalization’ in different way. Cell phones enable news to be delivered instantly. From my personal experience, when I was in Korea in 2006, my sister met car accident. At that time I was studying in a library, and a text message which let me know that my sister was in the hospital. Since I had never told anyone that I was going to the library, if I didn’t have a cell phone, I would never know my sister’s accident that fast. As shown in my example, when information needs to be delivered quickly, cell phone is a very effective method. For business men, who live by seconds, cell phone must be on the top of their must-have item list because their billion-dollar worth information should be delivered as fast as possible. With the advent of Information Era, the possession of cell phone becomes necessary.
In conclusion, As Informational Age came into exist, the rate of information spread got so much rapider than Industrial Age, and the fact is represented and demonstrated by some symbols of the Age such as internet and cellular phone. It is true that, by those modern conveniences, our life have been abundantly promoted. However, it also creates many causes of stress because of too fast pace which sometimes difficult to catch up. So, I, hereby, throw a tricky question for every modern people; Has Information Age only brought us good aspects? Are you satisfied?