Impacts of Information Technology on Individuals and Society
Benefits and costs
Technology changes how people work, learn, communicate and access services. Benefits include efficiency, access to information, remote work and telehealth; costs include distraction, screen-time health effects, job displacement, e-waste and energy use. Strong answers weigh both sides for a named group rather than generalising about "society".
Key issues to name
- Digital divide: unequal access by income, geography, age or disability, affecting education and employment.
- Privacy: data collection, profiling, cookies, surveillance and the right to control personal information.
- Security and fraud: identity theft, scams and the responsibility of organisations to protect data.
- Employment: automation changing tasks and skills, requiring reskilling.
- Environment: energy consumption of data centres, manufacturing impacts and e-waste recycling.
- Wellbeing: cyberbullying, social comparison, misinformation and attention effects.
- Equity and law: copyright, acceptable-use policies, accessibility legislation and workplace monitoring.
Traps in questions
- Presenting only advantages, or only disadvantages, when asked to evaluate.
- Using vague language such as "it makes life easier" instead of naming the group and mechanism.
- Confusing correlation with causation in claims about wellbeing.
- Forgetting that the same technology can widen or narrow the digital divide depending on access and skills.
- Ignoring ethical responsibility of developers and organisations, not just users.
Worked rule of thumb
Use a stakeholder-impact-evidence structure: name the stakeholder, state the impact with a direction (who gains, who loses), give a mechanism, then suggest a mitigation such as training, subsidised access, regulation or design choices. This converts opinion into analysis and earns marks for reasoning.
Sustainability
Consider repair-ability, recycling schemes and energy-efficient design as responses to e-waste and consumption.