Online Services of the Info Age

The information age has seen different types of online services form and advance in technology, popularity and accessibility with millions across the world using online services every day. The information age and the use of online services have change the way we live as well as the world itself.

Communication

Communication has been an important aspect of the information age which has seen a rapid increase in the past 30 years. Modern day communication started with mobile phone and E-mail* communication. From the first major age of both the mobile phone and E-mail in the 80’s, evolution for both services has progressed, especially with the mobile phone. From the beginning of mobile communication in the mid 70’s, the first mobile phone was designed. However, production was slower and it was a decade before the ‘brick**’ was sold to the public. The mobile phone continued to sell into the 90’s, despite the fact mobile phone took a long time to charge and only lasted 30 minutes. However, the 90’s also saw the mobile phone because more common and more sophisticated with the 2^nd generation mobile technology becoming accessible. The mobile phone continued to change with newer features such as colour screens and the SMS (Short Message Service) function becoming available. The 3^rd generation technology had also been developed by Japan in the early 2000’s. In addition to all these, mobile phones continued to get lighter; an improvement from the ‘Brick’. From this point, the mobile phone greatly increased in use and technology with smart phones already in development.



The evolution of the mobile phone from 1983 to 2007.

These smartphones were later released from 2007 to the present day. Smartphones were developed from previous mobile phones but feature advanced technology such as internet access, apps and touchscreens. The increase in smartphone popularity is also responsible for the growing use of SMS use (currently one of the most used forms of communication in the world) and social networking today.

 Social networking is another popular form of communication today. Like other forms of communication, social networking on the internet wasn’t introduced a long time ago, with the first sites appearing in the mid 90’s. The idea of a social networking site was to reunited old friends using internet communication. Today, social networking sites such as Facebook have expanded with other features including photo, video and status sharing with online ‘friends’. However, social networking can expose users to a range of issues and problems. Some of these issues include cyber bullying (similar to internet trolling), profile and internet hacking systems as well as privacy abuse.

The ‘troll face’, an image associated with internet trolling on social sites such as Facebook.

Other forms of internet communication include forums, video conferencing and Skype. However, these are not as popular as e-mailing and social networking for example. Video conferencing and Skype are similar form of using a webcam to communicate with others. Skype focuses on personal use of video conferencing, while normal video conferencing allows a user to talk to anyone. Forums are different and basically form an online community to post and comment about a shared interest or topic.

E-commerce

 As well as communication, the information age has seen an increase in online shopping and other examples of e-commerce. Online shopping is the most popular form of e-commerce today and is responsible for increase of company income as well as the closure of ‘real life’ shops. The birth of online shopping began along with the birth of the modern internet in the 90’s. As years passed, more companies invested in online shopping and the sites became larger and easier to use. Most sites feature a shopping cart and online payment to deliver a product to the location of the customer. While the convenience and product availability is an advantage to a user, online sites can also pose the threat of internet hacking and privacy issues as well as shipping costs and delivery wait time becoming inevitable. Despite this, the number of online shopping usage is increasing every year. Although online retailing is not to be confused with transactional sites. These sites include EBay and Amazon which allow a user to sell products as well as buy them. Transactional websites are another common form of e-commerce in the information age.

The logo of Amazon.co.uk, an example of a transactional site.

The money of the customer can also be managed using online banking and bill paying services. Online banking can be more convenient than visiting a building society due to more features helping manage your money, insurance and taxes (see E-Government). However, online banking does have its disadvantages such as online attacks and account hacking. Bill paying services are another feature of online banking which offers customers to send money from their accounts to pay for products electronically. This is an advantage as it can be quicker than paying with by cash. Details about payments can also be viewed and certain bill paying systems exist such as PayPal. PayPal and other systems can be used for online retailing and transactional sites too.

 Education

The information age has also been responsible for online education and learning programs. These programs include My Maths, Sam Learning and BBC Bitesize, which are all accessible from school computers. Bitesize is a popular revision website set up by the BBC, which allows students to test themselves and revise information for most subjects and most exam boards. Sam Learning works in a similar way, also allowing students to revise many different subjects and choose from different exam boards. My Maths is maths and statistics based, although has the same site objectives (to help students revise and prepare for their exams).

The Bitesize logo, a revision site for GCSE students.

Entertainment and Downloading

The internet has many different types of entertainment services online which have appealed to the people across the world. Many types of entertainment can be downloaded onto a computer, smartphone or tablet device. One of the most common forms of electronic entertainment is music from apple’s service ITunes. The ITunes service allows a user to download music tracks onto their IPod, Smartphone, tablet or computer that can be listened to anytime. Music downloading is also convenient and easy although there are a number of disadvantages too. One example would be illegally downloading music you haven’t purchased. The increasing price of music is why many knowingly download music illegally. In addition to these points, downloads in general can take up lots of memory space.

 YouTube is another popular choice for listening to music and watching other videos for entertainment or other reasons instead. Created in 2005, YouTube has rapidly expanded to have eight years’ worth of video content uploaded every day. YouTube is popular for having a video for just about every topic and interest for everyone. Since the beginning of YouTube, many minor video sites have been created. Another notable video site is iplayer, a video site created by the BBC in 2007 to allow people to view TV show they had missed since the initial broadcast. Other TV channels can created their own versions of iplayer such as Channel 4 with 4OD and ITV with ITV player. Iplayer has also expanded to become apps for smartphones so that users can view programmes on their phone as well.

Gaming has also advanced technologically in the past years. Console gaming began in the 70’s and were only accessible to a small amount of people. Gaming continued to advance with more games and consoles being released. However, the 90’s was a better decade for gaming with improved graphics including 3D and improved consoles such as the 16bit and 32bit console. Today, gaming has improved even further with even better graphics, controller less gaming, online gaming and games to download as apps. However, some people viewing video gaming as violent and that it teaches children wrong actions and thoughts. Despite this, video gaming and smartphone game apps are becoming more popular each year.

Pacman, an arcade game from the 80’s which shortly became available as a console game afterwards.

Apps have also become increasing popular and common due to the increase of smartphone usage. Like other downloads, there are apps for everything a user could want and need. Apps are an important aspect of the information age as they cover many online services already mentioned here.

Real Time Information

The younger generations benefit most from the online services of the information age as they had the most experience and interest growing up with them. Other generations also benefit from these online services with parts such as real time information. This involves everyday news, leisure and cinema as examples. Online news sites have taken over newspapers in popularity and the fall in newspaper sales is evidence for that. Online news sites and apps allow a user to browse a website for certain news articles which can easily be updated by the original site. Cinema and leisure sites have also adapted to allow users to book seats or activities online and pay online as well. The websites can also allow the user to find out more about their film or activity choice as well as other booking information.

E-Government

The Government system has also changed in reaction of the information age. Because of the increasing number of computers, E-Government has made important government aspects such as paying tax and insurance electronically possible. E-Governments also work in other countries across the world.  The E-Government system is more convenient and efficient than paying tax and insurance manually. However, the E-Government is expensive to run at more than $3 trillion per year.

Personal Experience

As well as billions of others all over the world, the way in which I live my life has been affected by the information age. Like many other people, communication is easier for me with a mobile phone that I can use when I need to.  I also use E-mail to submit and move work to different locations. I also use social networking to keep in touch with friends and family.

 I have also used to internet to purchase items such as DVDs, books and games. Online shopping is useful to me, especially is a product I want isn’t in store or if I cannot get to that store. Transactional websites are also useful if something I want is not even in an online store.

 As part of school exams, I have used all three education websites to help me revise topics I need to and to obtain the grades I deserve overall. Revision topics are also easier to find than in some textbooks.

 I often browse the internet and therefore, YouTube is not new to me. Because YouTube has videos for almost everything, there will always be something I can watch there. I am also interested in gaming, both online and console so I sometimes visit online game sites and use games consoles. BBC iplayer is also convenient if I miss a TV programme I wanted to watch. The real time information part of the information age isn’t as important to me as I sometimes find news sites helpful to keep up to date.

 *For more information about E-mail technology, please see the previous two posts which focus of the history and evolution of the E-mail.

**’Brick’ was a nickname for the first mobile phone because of its weight of 1kg.