Well here goes my first post towards this blog that I intentionally called “Computers and Society,” because it will cover everything that comes under this definition (and maybe more). After doing an extensive essay on Information Technology and its effects on privacy, I found that there are many unresolved issues to this day on the ethics of computers and how societies have a stance that is unclear in many ways. In one of the parts I mentioned that as technology is advancing, people are also changing or “accommodating” their views in the midst of this progress. Mike Lynch, who is often referred to as the "Bill Gates of UK" has said in an interview that ultimately certain aspects in today's societies are doomed such as privacy. The full article can be read here.
This may be true in some ways but can't it be said that society itself is redefining what privacy means to them every day? In other words is it adapting to the efficient technology culture in sacrifice of its current beliefs or is it truly feeling a sense of deprivation of its freedom? With the emergence of Social Networks such as Facebook and their overall popularity, I think that people are overlooking the threats that they may cause (such as individual privacy) and are keen
on joining the majority of users to reap the benefits of a social community. We are now in an era that relies on smart phones and I think this brings a shift in consciousness, making people more "easy going" towards the threat to privacy that information technology poses. This ultimately shows that the comments made by individuals such as Lynch can be deemed irrelevant in a society such as ours; where I believe that technology has an immense effect on society in terms of the beliefs it holds on issues such as privacy.
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