The Impact of Information Technology on the Human Communication

The Impact of Information Technology on the Human Communication
Outline
The technological revolution has been advancing at an alarming speed, consequently changing the way people do business and communicate. Other than inventions such as telephones, fax, and printing press, the latest fad in computer technology has seen even more dramatic attention in information technology. Some experts have attributed this wave in information communication to information processing, an extension of the wave of the industrial revolution, which would facilitate the development of an information society built on the creation and transfer of information (Brynjolfsson & Hitt 2003, p.793). This ability to process a large volume of information from any point of operation has transformed the global market, leading to a global network of companies. This paper discusses the potential impact of information communication technology; drawing ideas from the present and past trends and experiences.
Introduction
Revolutions in technology have had a dramatic and ostensible impact on the drastically changing world and society in general. The extensive use of the printing press, for instance, has literally altered the way people do business, learn and think. Another equally effective gadget is the telephone that has not only changed the convenience of communication but has also increased the speed of information flow and enhanced new kinds of human interactions, especially in business. Probably the most astonishing technological revolution of all times emerged with the advent of computers. Over the last two decades, computer technology has changed our daily lives in terms of work-life, business life, and general social life. It is however interesting to note that much of the computer technology changes and impacts occurred in the last ten years, a break from the first half of the two decades when computer applications were basic in nature. Tsai (2003, p. ix) says that the change brought about by computers has been especially dramatic in how business is defined and conducted, and that information technology has contributed to some of the most spectacular business successes of the 1980s and 1990s; “but it has also been responsible for the most crushing business failures of the past decade.”
The technological revolution like a very tiny computer microprocessor has basically transformed the economy, with scholars coiling terms such as the information age, the information society, or the information economy, in an effort to find the best way to describe the latest technological revolution such as internet resulting into e-business (Bartel, Ichniowski & Shaw 2007, p.1721). “We are at the dawn of this digital revolution, which is transforming the dawn of the 21st century the way the industrial revolution transformed the end of the 19th century” (Tsai 2003, p.17). The convincing arguments on what has caused this technological craze is fronted by John Naisbitt, who hypothesized that the new technologies of information processing are an extension of the wave of the industrial revolution, that would facilitate the development of information society built on the creation and transfer of information (Brynjolfsson & Hitt 2003, p.793). In an actual sense, information has turned out to be one of the key resources in the new social and economic relations, just the way energy drove the industrial revolution.
Information technology Vs future business prospects
What then does information technology hold for the future human communication in business; say ten to fifteen years from now? The rapidly growing communication networks and the new media are nonetheless creating a global village and a new culture. It has seen a dramatic decline in the real cost of processing information, communication, and transportation by literally globalizing the markets and expanding the global resource base (Bartel, Ichniowski & Shaw 2007, p.1729). These global communication networks are based on either ground or satellite systems, are virtually all over, making it feasible for a firm to manage not only highly integrated operations but also globally dispersed operations in real-time (Bresnahan, Brynjolfsson & Hitt 2002, p.340; Bresnahan & Trajtenberg 1995, pp.83-84).
It is apparent that even the leading technology industries have adopted one common principle: “open communication for real-time business” (Autor, Katz & Kearney 2006, p.191). They understand that “business, even the hyper-technical one, is not a repetitive mechanical process” but is a people-driven process in terms of ideas as well as communication (Faria, Fenn & Bruce 2002, p.573). Recently, Google was ranked the best employer by Fortune magazine, due to their effort to make business personal by emphasizing the importance of human communication, relationship as well as interaction